THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


on  the  last  date  stamp"- 


Library 


SOUTHERN  BRANCH, 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA, 

LIBRARY, 

'LOS  ANGELES,  CALIF. 


REPORT 


OF  THE 


COMMITTEE  OF  TWELVE 


OF  THE 


Modem  Language  Association  of  America 


WITH  AN  INTRODUCTION     , 

BY    THE    CHAIRMAN 

CALVIN   THOMAS 

PKOFESSOR  OF  GERMANIC  LANGUAGES  IN  COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY 


46712 

D.   C.   HEATH   &   CO.,  PUBLISHERS 
BOSTON          NEW  YORK        CHICAGO 


ID7 


L13 


/• 

INTRODUCTION 


THE  circumstances  attending  the  origin  of  the  report 
<T)  which  is  here  reprinted  without  change,  the  committee's 
^  mode  of  procedure  and  the  difficulties  that  beset  their  path, 
^  are  sufficiently  explained  in  the  first  section  of  the  report 
itself.    It  is  part  of  a  general  movement  started  a  few  years 
ago  by  the  National  Educational  Association ;  a  movement 
^v -looking  toward  a  better  and  more  uniform  definition  of 
^.requirements  for  admission  to  American  colleges.     No  one 
familiar  with  the  facts  ever  imagined  that  it  would  be  pos- 
sible, even  if  it  were  desirable,  to  establish  uniform  courses 
of  study  in  all  our  secondary  schools;  but  it  was  felt  that 
great  good  would  be  accomplished  if  certain  norms  or  units 
oof  instruction  could  be  defined,  certain  general  principles 
s \iaid  down,  and  a  descriptive  nomenclature  recommended, 
which  should  have  substantially  the  same  meaning  every- 
where. 

The  problem  of  the  Modern  Language  Committee  was, 
then,  to  suggest  to  the  secondary  teacher  what  should  be 
taught  and  how  it  should  be  taught,  and  to  do  this  in  such  a 
way  as  to  leave  to  the  schools  a  large  measure  of  liberty  in  the 
management  of  details.  But  the  what  and  the  how  were 
inextricably  bound  up  with  the  why,  since  the  teacher's 
theory  as  to  the  purpose  for  which  a  modern  language  is 


IV  INTRODUCTION 

studied  will  inevitably  exert  a  determining  influence  upon 
the  character  and  method  of  the  instruction.  It  was  first 
necessary,  therefore,  to  take  a  definite  position  with  regard 
to  the  educational  value  of  the  modern  languages.  This 
topic  is  covered  in  Section  II,  which  is  to  be  regarded  as 
the  theoretical  basis  of  all  the  ensuing  recommendations. 
That  the  views  of  the  committee  upon  this  subject,  or 
indeed  any  other  views  that  could  possibly  be  formulated, 
would  command  universal  assent,  was,  of  course,  not  to  be 
expected.  I  believe,  however,  that  they  rest  upon  sound 
reason.  If,  as  we  hope,  the  modern  languages  are  to  play  an 
increasingly  important  and  dignified  role  in  our  scheme  of 
secondary  education;  if  they  are  to  do  what  they  are 
capable  of  doing  for  the  mind  and  character  of  the  learner, 
they  must  be  taken  very  seriously.  It  is  important  to  aim 
high. 

Of  course  it  is  not  my  purpose,  in  this  brief  introduction, 
to  traverse  the  recommendations  of  the  report  point  by 
point.  It  speaks  for  itself  and  has  little  need  of  explan- 
atory comment.  That  it  is  a  perfect  finality  in  American 
education  no  one  supposes,  and  least  of  all  the  scholars 
who  prepared  it.  It  is  rather  to  be  regarded  as  a  begin- 
ning, a  tentative  effort  toward  the  creation  of  a  high  national 
standard  of  secondary  instruction  in  the  modern  languages. 
Upon  some  points  there  were  differences  of  opinion  in  the 
committee  itself,  and  what  was  finally  incorporated  in  the 
report  was  the  result  of  compromise.  We  had  a  difficult 
task  to  perform.  Our  foremost  desire  was  to  prepare  a 
report  that  should  be  practically  useful.  We  did  not  wish 
to  emit  a  learned  essay,  weighted  down  with  historical 
lore,  statistical  tables  and  exhaustive  bibliographies.  A 


INTRODUCTION  V 

report  of  that  kind  might  have  had  its  uses  for  some,  but 
it  was  certain  that  the  great  majority  of  teachers  would 
derive  little  benefit  from  such  a  document,  even  if  they 
should  have  the  patience  to  read  it.  What  they  needed 
was  practical  counsel,  stated  with  all  possible  clearness 
and  brevity,  but  based  upon  sound  reasoning  and  em- 
bodying the  best  thought  and  experience  of  the  day. 

And  this  is  what  the  committee  has  faithfully  endeav- 
ored to  give.  Every  question,  certainly  every  important 
question,  taken  up  in  the  report  was  treated  as  a  matter  to 
be  investigated  afresh  in  the  light  of  reason  and  experience. 
Snap  judgments  were  not  tolerated.  Individual  prejudice 
was  required  to  justify  itself  at  the  bar  of  general  discus- 
sion. Every  effort  was  made  to  do  full  justice  to  arguments 
and  opinions  which  we  could  not,  in  the  end,  fully  ap- 
prove. No  pains  were  spared  in  the  collection  of  infor- 
mation which  might  have  a  bearing  upon  our  work. 

But  notwithstanding  the  care  that  was  exercised,  it 
would  be  preposterous  to  suppose  that  the  report  can  have 
any  other  value  than  that  of  a  normative  scheme  which 
may  serve  provisionally  to  guide  the  efforts  of  teachers 
and  to  focus  criticism.  The  difficulty  has  been  hitherto 
that  we  have  had  no  national  pattern  whatever  —  not  even 
the  semblance  of  one.  There  has  been  much  profitable 
discussion  in  local  associations  and  many  good  papers 
have  been  written  by  individual  teachers.  But  it  has  been 
a  scattering  fire;  there  has  been  no  obvious  and  convenient 
way  of  making  our  increasing  wisdom  effective  toward  the 
general  improvement  of  school  work.  It  is  to  be  hoped 
that  the  Report  of  the  Committee  of  Twelve  will  hereafter 
meet  this  very  need.  No  doubt  it  is  vulnerable  here  and 


VI  INTRODUCTION 

there.  In  a  document  dealing  briefly  with  such  a  variety 
of  matters,  many  of  them  matters  of  controversy,  it  is  in- 
evitable that  the  individual  teacher  will  find  more  or  less 
to  criticise.  He  will  discover  what  from  his  point  of  view 
will  appear  to  be  errors  of  doctrine  and  errors  of  emphasis. 
He  will  wish  that  this  and  that  had  been  left  out  or 
differently  formulated.  He  may  think  that  the  courses  of 
study,  as  laid  out  by  the  committee,  are  too  severe;  that 
they  make  too  much  of  certain  disciplines,  too  little  of 
others.  He  will  think,  perhaps  with  good  reason,  that 
the  reading-lists  are  capable  of  great  improvement. 

Very  well ;  let  him  offer  his  criticisms  freely  and  forcibly, 
but  always  in  a  helpful  spirit,  regarding  the  report  not  as 
a  hostile  fort  to  be  battered  down,  but  as  a  house  to  be 
gradually  improved  into  a  comfortable  habitation  for  us 
all.  And  then,  after  a  few  years,  it  will  be  for  some  new 
committee  to  revise  the  scheme  in  the  light  of  criticism 
and  of  freshly  accumulated  experience. 

CALVIN  THOMAS. 
NEW  YORK,  May,  igoo. 


REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  TWELVE 
OF  THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  ASSOCk 
ATION  OF  AMERICA.1 


The  committee  appointed  two  years  ago  to  make 
recommendations  upon  the  subject  of  preparatory  require- 
ments in  French  and  German  has  the  honor  to  submit  the 
following  report: 

SECTION  I 
PRELIMINARY 

It  will  be  remembered  that  the  appointment  of  the  com- 
mittee grew  out  of  a  request  of  the  National  Educational 
Association,  which  has  for  some  time  been  endeavoring  to 
bring  about  a  better  regulation  of  secondary  instruc- 
tion in  the  subjects  usually  required  for  admission  to 
American  colleges.  In  pursuing  this  laudable  undertaking 
the  National  Educational  Association  very  properly  saw 
fit  to  ask  for  the  advice  of  various  professional  bodies,  our 
own  among  the  number.  In  particular,  it  was  desired  that 
we  draw  up  model  preparatory  courses  in  French  and  Ger- 
man and  make  recommendations  concerning  the  practical 
management  of  these  courses.  The  matter  was  brought 

1  Submitted  at  a  meeting  of  the  Association  held  in  December, 
1898,  at  Charlottesville.  Va. 


2  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  TWELVE  OF 

to  the  attention  of  both  branches  of  this  association  at  the 
sessions  of  1896,  and  we  were  asked  to  take  appropriate 
action.  As  the  business  appeared  to  be  of  very  great  im- 
portance, it  was  thought  best  to  turn  it  over  to  a  large 
committee  having  a  somewhat  general  mandate  to  investi- 
gate and  report.  The  resolution  under  which  the  commit- 
tee was  appointed  reads  as  follows: 

That  a  committee  of  twelve  be  appointed:  (a)  To  con- 
sider the  position  of  the  modern  languages  in  secondary 
education ;  ( b )  to  examine  into  and  make  recommenda- 
tions upon  methods  of  instruction,  the  training  of  teachers, 
and  such  other  questions  connected  with  the  teaching  of 
the  modern  languages  in  the  secondary  schools  and  the  col- 
leges as  in  the  judgment  of  the  committee  may  require 
consideration. 

That  this  committee  shall  consist  of  the  present  presi- 
dent of  the  association,  Prof.  Calvin  Thomas,  as  chair- 
man, and  eleven  other  members  of  the  association,  to  be 
named  by  him. 

That  the  association  hereby  refers  to  this  committee  the 
request  of  a  committee  of  the  National  Educational  Asso- 
ciation for  cooperation  in  the  consideration  of  the  subject 
of  college  entrance  examinations  in  French  and  German. 

In  pursuance  of  this  resolution  the  committee  was  made 
up  early  in  the  year  1897,  and  began  its  work  by  prepar- 
ing a  circular,  which  was  sent  out  to  some  2,500  teachers. 
The  object  of  the  circular  was  to  obtain  information  with 
regard  to  the  present  status  of  secondary  instruction  in 
French  and  German  in  the  country  at  large,  and  also  to 
elicit  opinions  with  respect  to  a  number  of  more  or  less 
debatable  questions  which,  as  was  thought,  would  be  likely 
to  arise  in  the  course  of  the  committee's  deliberations. 
Several  hundred  replies  were  received  and  collated,  and 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  ASSOCIATION  OF  AMERICA          3 

the  information  thus  obtained  was  laid  before  the  commit- 
tee at  a  session  held  in  Philadelphia  one  year  ago.  We 
have  not  thought  it  wise  to  cumber  this  report,  which  will 
be  long  enough  at  the  best,  with  a  detailed  recital  of  these 
statistics.  Suffice  it  to  say  that,  taken  as  a  whole,  they 
give  us  a  picture  of  somewhat  chaotic  and  bewildering 
conditions.  Under  various  names  our  secondary  schools 
have  a  large  number  of  courses  in  which  French  and 
German  figure  as  prominent  or  as  subordinate  subjects 
of  instruction ;  courses  of  one,  two,  three  and  four  or  more 
years ;  courses  providing  for  two,  three,  four,  or  five  reci- 
tations a  week,  and  for  recitation  periods  ranging  from 
twenty-five  to  sixty  minutes.  And  when  we  come  to  the 
colleges  and  higher  scientific  schools  the  requirements  for 
admission  are  hardly  less  multifarious.  Various  bachelors' 
degrees  are  conferred,  and  for  admission  to  the  courses 
leading  to  these  degrees  French  and  German  figure  vari- 
ously, according  as  the  modern  language  is  offered  in 
addition  to  the  Latin  and  Greek  of  the  classical  prepara-' 
tory  course,  or  in  place  of  Greek,  or  as  the  main  linguistic 
study.  Some  of  the  colleges  have  also  an  elementary  and 
an  advanced  requirement,  with  options  variously  managed. 
Upon  surveying  the  intricate  problem  thus  presented, 
the  members  of  the  committee  perceived  at  once  that  any 
report  which  they  might  make,  if  it  was  to  be  really  use- 
ful, must  be  adapted,  so  far  as  practicable,  to  the  condi- 
tions as  they  are.  It  was  not  for  us  to  recommend  radical 
changes  in  the  American  system,  or  lack  of  system,  which 
has  grown  up  in  a  natural  way  and  must  work  out  its  own 
destiny.  It  was  not  for  us  to  attempt  to  decide  which 
of  the  various  competing  courses  is  the  best  course,  or  to 
antagonize  any  particular  study.  Nor  could  we  assume  to 


4  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  TWELVE  OF 

dictate  to  the  colleges  just  how  much  knowledge  of  French 
or  German,  or  both,  they  shall  demand  for  admission  to 
this,  that,  or  the  other  undergraduate  course.  The  col- 
leges would  certainly  not  consent  to  any  surrender  of  their 
liberty  to  regulate  their  requirements  in  their  own  way. 
Most  important  of  all,  it  was  not  for  us  to  propose  any 
arrangements  which  could  be  taken  to  imply  that  sec- 
ondary instruction  in  French  and  German  exists  only  for 
the  sake  of  preparation  for  college.  The  great  majority 
of  those  studying  the  modern  languages  in  school  do  not 
go  to  college  at  all.  Our  secondary  education  must  be 
recognized  as  having  its  own  function,  its  own  aims  and 
ideals.  In  the  great  mass  of  the  schools  those  who  are 
preparing  for  college  receive  instruction  in  the  same  classes 
with  those  who  are  not  preparing  for  college.  And  this 
must  alw.ays  be  so.  These  considerations  seemed  to  in- 
dicate that  the  proper  line  for  the  committee  to  pursue  was 
as  follows: 

To  describe  a  certain  number  of  grades  of  preparatory 
instruction,  corresponding  to  courses  of  different  length; 
to  define  these  grades  as  clearly  as  possible  in  terms  of 
time  and  work  and  aim,  and  to  make  a  few  practical  rec- 
ommendations with  regard  to  the  management  of  the  in- 
struction— recommendations  having  as  their  sole  object 
the  educational  benefit  of  the  pupil.  The  members  of  the 
committee  are  naturally  of  the  opinion  that  the  study  of  a 
modern  language  in  school  has  a  distinct  educational  value 
of  its  own.  The  teacher's  problem  is  to  realize  this  value 
from  the  study.  Whether  the  learner  is  going  to  college 
or  not  makes  no  difference,  save  as  this  consideration  af- 
fects the  amount  of  time  he  can  devote  to  the  modern 
language  while  preparing  himself  in  the  other  necessary 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  ASSOCIATION  OF  AMERICA  5 

subjects.  If  such  courses  could  be  wisely  drawn  up,  and 
<f  then  they  were  to  be  recommended  to  the  country  upon 
Jie  combined  authority  of  the  Modern  Language  Asso- 
ciation and  the  National  Educational  Association,  it  would 
seem  reasonable  to  expect  them  soon  to  become  the  na- 
tional norm  of  secondary  instruction  in  the  modern 
languages.  It  also  seems  reasonable  to  expect  that  the 
colleges  will  be  not  only  willing  but  glad  to  adopt  the  prac- 
tice of  stating  their  requirements  in  terms  of  the  national 
grades.  Such  a  mutual  understanding  between  the  col- 
leges and  the  secondary  schools  should  do  much  to  bring 
a  definitely  understood  order  out  of  our  existing  chaos. 

Having  come  a  year  ago  to  this  general  conclusion  as 
to  what  could  and  should  be  done,  the  committee  saw  that 
it  would  be  impossible  to  submit  a  satisfactory  final  report 
at  the  Philadelphia  meeting.  There  were  various  matters 
that  required  further  study.  First,  there  was  the  question 
as  to  how  many  grades  were  really  needed — whether  two, 
or  three,  or  more.  Then  there  was  the  question  of  French 
and  German  in  the  lower  school  grades.  This  subject,  it 
is  true,  had  not  been  expressly  committed  to  us ;  but  it  was 
known  that  many  private  schools,  and  not  a  few  of  our 
best  public  schools,  already  provide  instruction  in  French 
or  German  in  grades  below  the  high  school.  It  was  also 
known  that  many  good  teachers  strongly  advocate  this 
idea.  But  if  it  is  wise  to  begin  a  modern  language  some 
time  before  the  high  school  is  reached,  and  if  this  practice 
is  to  be  extended  and  to  become  more  and  more  a  part  of 
our  national  system,  it  is  evident  that  the  modern-language 
work  of  the  secondary  schools  must  be  more  or  less  af- 
fected. Again,  there  was  the  perplexing  question  oi 
method. 


6  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  TWELVE  OF 

In  view  of  the  sharp  differences  of  opinion  and  of  prac- 
tice known  to  exist  among  teachers,  the  committee  thought 
it  best,  before  undertaking  to  advise  teachers  how  to  teach, 
to  reexamine  the  whole  matter  carefully  in  the  light  of  ex- 
perience and  in  the  light  of  recent  contributions  to  the 
subject,  to  the  end  that  their  final  recommendations  might 
be  as  free  as  possible  from  any  vagaries  of  personal  preju- 
dice. Finally,  there  was  the  large  task  of  drawing  up  the 
proposed  courses  and  formulating  the  recommendations. 
Seeing  all  this  work  ahead,  the  committee  decided,  at  the 
Philadelphia  session,  to  report  progress,  ask  for  addi- 
tional time  and  money,  and,  if  this  request  should  be 
granted,  to  appoint  a  number  of  sub-committees,  whose 
task  it  should  be  to  inquire  into  and  report  upon  the  vari- 
ous questions  just  enumerated.  The  request  was  granted 
and  the  committee  adjourned  after  passing  unanimously 
a  single  resolution,  the  import  of  which  will  be  apparent 
from  what  was  said  a  little  while  ago.  The  resolution  was 
to  the  effect  that  secondary  instruction  in  French  and 
German  should  not  be  differentiated,  according  as  the 
pupil  is,  or  is  not,  preparing  for  college. 

During  the  first  half  of  the  year  1898  the  subcommittees 
worked  at  their  several  tasks  by  means  of  circulars  and 
correspondence.  Early  in  November  a  three  day  session 
of  the  general  committee  was  held  in  New  York  City. 
The  meeting  was  attended  by  ten  of  the  tw.elve  members, 
two  being  unavoidably  absent.  The  reports  of  the  various 
subcommittees  were  received  and  discussed,  together  with 
other  matters  germane  to  the  committee's  general  task. 
As  a  result  of  the  three  days'  discussion,  the  substance  of 
the  following  report  was  agreed  upon.  Since  the  Novem- 
ber meeting  the  report,  as  below  drawn  up,  has  been  sub- 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  ASSOCIATION  OF  AMERICA          7 

mitted  to  the  members  of  the  committee,  and,  after  some 
further  interchange  of  views  by  mail,  has  been  agreed  to 
by  them  unanimously. 

SECTION  II 

VALUE  OF  THE   MODERN   LANGUAGES   IN   SECONDARY 
EDUCATION 

Aside  from  the  general  disciplinary  value  common  to 
all  linguistic  and  literary  studies,  the  study  of  French  and 
German  in  the  secondary  schools  is  profitable  in  three 
ways:  First,  as  an  introduction  to  the  life  and  literature 
of  France  and  Germany;  secondly,  as  a  preparation  for 
intellectual  pursuits  that  require  the  ability  to  read  French 
and  German  for  information ;  thirdly,  as  the  foundation  of 
an  accomplishment  that  may  become  useful  in  business  and 
travel.  Under  each  of  these  heads  a  great  deal  might  be 
said;  but  an  exhaustive  discussion  of  the  several  topics 
would  swell  the  volume  of  this  report  beyond  the  limits 
within  which  it  is  likely  to  be  most  useful.  A  few  words 
must  therefore  suffice. 

What  we  have  called  the  general  disciplinary  value  of 
linguistic  and  literary  study  is  well  understood  the  world 
over,  and  has  long  been  recognized  in  the  educational  ar- 
rangements of  every  civilized  nation.  The  study  of  a  lan- 
guage other  than  the  mother  tongue  requires  the  learner 
to  compare  and  discriminate,  thus  training  the  analytic 
and  reflective  faculties.  The  effort  to  express  himself  in 
the  unfamiliar  idiom,  to  translate  from  it  into  his  own, 
makes  him  attentive  to  the  meaning  of  words,  gives  a  new 
insight  into  the  possible  resources  of  expression,  and  cul- 
tivates precision  of  thought  and  statement.  Incidentally 


8  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  TWELVE  OF 

the  memory  is  strengthened  and  the  power  of  steady  appli- 
cation developed.  In  time  such  study  opens  the  gate  to  a 
new  literature,  thus  liberalizing  the  mind  and  giving  an 
ampler  outlook  upon  life.  Through  literature  the  student 
is  made  a  partaker  in  the  intellectual  life  of  other  times 
and  other  peoples.  He  becomes  familiar  with  their  man- 
ners and  customs,  their  ideals  and  institutions,  their 
mistakes  and  failures,  and  with  the  artistic  forms  in  which 
the  national  genius  has  expressed  itself.  When  he  leaves 
school,  such  knowledge  not  only  enriches  his  personal  life, 
but  makes  him  a  more  useful  because  a  more  intelligent 
member  of  society.  It  exerts  a  steadying,  sanative  influ- 
ence, for  it  furnishes  him  with  standards  based  upon  the 
best  performance  of  the  race  everywhere.  For  us  Amer- 
icans, with  our  large  confidence  in  our  own  ways  and 
destiny,  there  is  special  need  of  the  wisdom  that  comes 
from  familiarity  with  the  life,  literature,  and  history  of  the 
great  makers  of  European  civilization. 

What  has  been  said  up  to  this  point  relates  to  the  profit 
of  linguistics  and  literary  study  in  general,  a  matter  about 
which  there  is  no  serious  difference  of  opinion  among  in- 
telligent people.  When,  however,  we  come  to  consider  the 
relative  value  of  the  ancient  and  the  modern  languages, 
we  raise  a  moot  question  over  which  there  has  been  endless 
discussion.  Here,  again,  we  refrain  from  lengthy  argu- 
ment. Let  it  be  remarked,  however,  that  the  question  is  a 
very  large  one,  to  be  decided  only  in  the  light  of  long  and 
wide  experience.  To  reach  a  sane  view  of  the  matter  it  is 
necessary  to  make  some  allowance  on  both  sides  for  the 
partisanship  of  the  professional  teacher,  who  is  generally 
more  or  less  prone  to  overstate  the  importance  of  his 
specialty.  Nor  should  we  allow  too  great  weight  to  the 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  ASSOCIATION  OF  AMERICA          g 

views  of  publicists,  men  of  letters,  and  so  forth,  who  treat 
the  question  from  a  purely  personal  point  of  view.  The 
man  in  middle  life,  who  has  the  advantage  of  knowing  just 
what  knowledge  is  most  useful  to  him  in  his  own  work, 
can  usually  look  back  upon  his  early  education  and  tell  a 
tale  of  neglected  opportunities  and  misapplied  energy. 
Educational  arrangements  must  be  made  for  the  many,  and 
human  tastes,  needs,  and  aptitudes  are  various.  For  the 
boy  or  girl  who  must  select  a  course  of  study  long  before 
he  or  she  can  know  just  what  special  attainment  will  be 
the  most  useful  in  after  life,  it  is  enough  to  be  assured 
that  the  discipline  and  culture  derived  from  the  study  of  a 
foreign  language,  whether  ancient  or  modern,  will  cer- 
tainly prove  valuable. 

The  committee  is  of  the  opinion  that  the  best  course  of 
study  for  the  secondary  school  will  always  provide  instruc- 
tion in  at  least  one  ancient  and  one  modern  language. 
Beyond  this  we  do  not  undertake  to  pass  judgment  upon 
the  comparative  merits  of  competing  courses.  It  has  al- 
ways been  the  policy  of  the  Modern  Language  Association 
not  to  antagonize  the  study  of  Latin  and  Greek.  We  ask 
for  the  modern  languages  in  school  and  college  nothing 
more  than  a  fair  chance  to  show  what  they  are  worth. 
We  believe  that  they  are  worth,  when  properly  taught, 
no  less  than  the  ancient  languages.1  It  is,  of  course, 
conceded  that  the  Latin  and  Greek  are  the  more  "  difficult  " 


1  "  It  seems  to  me  that  the  teaching  of  modern  languages  in 
many  of  the  schools  *  *  *  has  now  reached  such  a  stage  that 
we  may  fairly  say  that  a  training  in  French  or  German,  or  both, 
can  be  given  which  is  just  as  substantial,  strong,  and  useful  a 
training  as  any  other  that  is  given  in  the  same  period." — President 
Eliot,  Educational  Reform,  p.  378. 


IO  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  TWELVE  OF 

in  the  initial  stages.  But  difficulty  can  not  be  the  highest 
test  of  educational  utility,  else  Latin  and  Greek  should 
themselves  give  way  to  Sanskrit  and  Chinese.  Evidently 
it  is  the  goodness  of  the  kernel  and  not  the  thickness  and 
hardness  of  the  shell  that  we  are  mainly  to  think  of.  The 
kernel  is  the  introduction  to  the  life  and  literature  of  a 
great  civilized  people,  whom  it  is,  for  some  reason,  very 
important  for  us  to  know  about.  And  here  it  may  prop- 
erly be  urged  on  behalf  of  the  modern  languages  that,  just 
in  proportion  as  they  are  easier  to  acquire,  the  essential 
benefit  of  the  acquisition  is  the  sooner  realized.  They  give 
a  quicker  return  upon  the  investment.  This  is  a  considera- 
tion that  is  of  special  importance  for  the  secondary  school. 
It  is  quite  possible  in  an  ordinary  school  course  to  learn 
to  read  French  and  German  easily.  The  high-school  grad- 
uate who  has  acquired  this  ability  can  at  once  turn  it  to 
account,  even  if  he  does  not  go  to  college.  If  he  allows 
his  ability  to  slip  from  him  through  lack  of  practice,  it  is 
at  least  his  own  fault.  In  the  case  of  the  ancient  lan- 
guages, on  the  other  hand,  it  is  a  well-understood  and  oft- 
lamented  fact  that  the  great  majority,  even  of  college 
graduates,  never  learn  to  read  Latin  and  Greek  with  ease. 
Up  to  the  last  the  effort  is  more  or  less  painful.  After 
leaving  college  they  usually  drop  their  Latin  and  Greek, 
and  in  a  short  time  they  can  not  read  at  all.  The  profit  of 
the  study  thus  reduces,  for  the  many,  to  its  purely  gym- 
nastic value.  That  value,  we  are  prepared  to  admit,  is  very 
great ;  but  we  would  urge  that  the  purely  gymnastic  value 
of  the  modern  languages  is,  potentially,  also  very  great, 
The  argument  of  "  difficulty  "  is  often  misused.  There 
may  be  as  much  valuable  exercise  in  walking  five  miles  up 
a  gentle  slope  as  in  climbing  a  mile  up  a  sharp  acclivity. 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  ASSOCIATION  OF  AMERICA        II 

The  first  and  greatest  value  of  the  study  of  the  modern 
languages  must  be  looked  for,  then,  in  the  introduction 
of  the  learner  to  the  life  and  literature  of  the  two  great 
peoples  who,  next  to  the  English  stock,  have  made  the 
most  important  contributions  to  European  civilization. 
That  these  literatures  are  as  important,  as  worthy  of 
study,  as  full  of  instruction  for  the  modern  man  and 
woman  as  are  those  earlier  literatures  that  once  formed 
the  great  staple  of  education,  is  a  proposition  that  we  do 
not  think  necessary  to  argue,  though  it  is  sometimes  denied 
in  toto  by  zealous  advocates  of  classical  study.  For  the 
peculiar  intellectual  myopia  that  can  see  nothing  new  and 
nothing  good  in  modern  literature  the  only  remedy  is  the 
classical  hellebore. 

We  attach  greatest  importance,  then,  to  linguistic  dis- 
cipline and  literary  culture.  But  the  ability  to  read  French 
and  German  has  also  another  value  not  directly  connected 
with  the  study  of  belles-lettres.  In  nearly  all  branches  of 
knowledge  at  the  present  time  a  large  part  of  the  best  that 
has  been  written  is  to  be  found  in  the  German  and  French 
languages.  One  who  wishes  to  study  anything  thoroughly, 
no  matter  what,  finds  it  highly  convenient,  if  not  absolutely 
necessary,  to  be  able  to  read  these  languages  in  the  pursuit 
of  information.  The  high-school  graduate  who  brings 
this  ability  with  him  to  college  has  a  great  advantage  in 
that  he  can  at  once  begin  to  use  it  as  a  tool  in  prosecuting 
his  studies.  Of  those  who  do  not  go  to  college  it  is  fair 
to  presume  that  a  considerable  portion  w.ill  continue  some 
line  of  private  study,  if  not  as  a  vocation,  then  as  an  avoca- 
tion. For  all  such  the  ability  to  read  French  and  German 
will  be  of  great  service. 

It  is  next  in  order  to  remark  briefly  upon  what  is  pop- 


12  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  TWELVE  OF 

ularly  called  the  "  practical  "  value  of  French  and  German 
— that  is,  their  utility  as  a  means  of  intercourse.  The 
practical  command  of  a  foreign  language  has  a  potential 
value  that  is  at  once  perceived  by  everyone.  It  is  felt  to  be 
desirable  by  multitudes  who  would  probably  care  but  little 
for  the  considerations  presented  in  the  preceding  para- 
graphs of  this  section.  The  committee  hold,  however,  that 
in  our  general  scheme  of  secondary  education  the  ability 
to  converse  in  French  or  German  should  be  regarded  as  of 
subordinate  importance.  We  by  no  means  say  that  it 
should  be  ignored,  or  that  colloquial  practice  may  safely 
be  neglected  in  teaching.  With  this  point  the  report  will 
deal  further  on.  Here  we  merely  express  the  opinion  that 
the  ability  to  converse  should  not  be  regarded  as  a  thing 
of  primary  importance  for  its  own  sake,  but  as  auxiliary  to 
the  higher  ends  of  linguistic  scholarship  and  literary 
culture.  The  grounds  of  this  opinion  are  briefly  as  fol- 
lows: 

The  practical  command  of  a  living  language,  such  as 
will  be  really  useful  for  the  ordinary  purposes  of  life,  pre- 
supposes a  large  amount  of  practice  in  speaking.  The 
requisite  amount  of  practice  can  not  possibly  be  given  in  an 
ordinary  school  course^  even  in  a  course  of  four  years  in 
length,  in  which  the  pupils  come  together  four  or  five  times 
a  week,  perhaps  in  classes  of  considerable  size,  remain  with 
the  teacher  for  three-quarters  of  an  hour,  and  the  rest  of 
the  time  speak  English.  With  the  most  skillful  teachers, 
working  with  the  best  methods  that  can  be  devised,  and 
concentrating  their  effort  upon  the  one  aim  of  teaching  the 
pupil  to  talk,  the  results  of  such  a  course,  unless  the  work 
of  the  school  is  supplemented  by  practice  at  home,  is  only 
an  imperfect  command  of  the  language,  which  is  of  little 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  ASSOCIATION  OF  AMERICA        13 

use  outside  the  class  room.  Meanwhile  the  concentration 
of  effort  upon  this  one  object  necessarily  involves  the  neg- 
lect of  other  things  that  are  of  more  importance  in  the  end. 
For  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  process  of  learning  to 
speak  a  foreign  language  has  no  educational  value  except 
as  it  is  connected  with,  and  grows  out  of,  the  improvement 
of  the  mind. 

In  the  second  place  it  is  to  be  remarked  that  while  in 
certain  European  countries,  by  reason  of  their  geograph- 
ical position,  or  the  character  of  the  population,  it  is  of 
very  great  practical  importance  that  the  rising  generation 
learn  to  speak  two  or  three  languages  with  facility,  the 
conditions  in  the  United  States  are  different.  If  it  were 
possible  in  the  secondary  school  to  impart  a  good  practical 
command  of  French,  it  is  evident  that  all  but  a  minute 
proportion  of  those  leaving  school  with  this  accomplish- 
ment would  soon  lose  it  for  lack  of  occasion  to  use  it.  We 
have,  it  is  true,  a  number  of  communities  in  which  the 
ability  to  speak  German  is  highly  convenient,  and  may 
even  have  a  local  market  value.  But  nowhere  in  the 
United  States  is  this  ability  indispensable.  The  English 
language  is  the  vernacular  of  the  country  and  the  medium 
of  our  civilization,  and  we  wish  it  to  become  more  so, 
rather  than  less  so,  with  the  lapse  of  time.  So  far  as 
purely  practical  considerations  go,  it  is  for  those  who  come 
to  us  to  learn  our  language,  not  for  us  to  learn  theirs.  If 
we  teach  a  foreign  language  in  our  schools  it  should  be  for 
the  sake  of  its  general  educational  value.  At  the  same 
time,  its  potential  value  as  a  means  of  intercourse  may 
very  properly  be  kept  in  view.  One  who  has  received  the 
best  training  that  the  secondary  school  can  give  may  not 
be  able  to  speak  his  modern  language  with  facility  for 


14  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  TWELVE  OF 

the  practical  purposes  of  life,  but  he  will  have  been  started 
in  the  right  way ;  will  have  obtained  a  good  general  knowl- 
edge of  the  language,  and  will  have  had  some  practice  in 
speaking.  If  then,  after  leaving  school,  he  needs  to  be 
able  to  speak  the  language,  he  has  an  excellent  foundation 
on  which  to  build.  Proficiency  will  come  rapidly  with 
practice. 

SECTION  III 
A  CRITICAL  REVIEW  OF  METHODS  OF  TEACHING 

THE  GRAMMAR  METHOD 

When  the  modern  languages  first  became  a  regular 
subject  for  serious  study  in  secondary  schools  it  was  nat- 
ural that  teachers,  having  no  other  model  to  imitate, 
should  adopt  the  time-honored  plan  followed  in  the  de- 
partment of  Greek  and  Latin.  According  to  this  method 
the  pupil  is  first  put  through  a  volume  of  paradigms,  rules, 
exceptions,  and  examples  which  he  learns  by  heart.  Only 
when  he  has  thoroughly  mastered  this  book  is  he  allowed 
to  read ;  and  even  then  his  reading  is  usually  regarded  as 
a  means  of  illustrating  and  emphasizing  grammatical  prin- 
ciples, rather  than  as  a  source  of  inspiration  or  of  literary 
education.  The  amount  of  foreign  literature  studied  by 
the  class  is,  moreover,  extremely  small ;  but  it  is  all  care- 
fully analyzed  and  translated,  every  lesson  being,  in 
general,  repeated  several  times.  Composition  is  used  as 
an  instrument  for  increasing  still  more  the  student's 
familiarity  with  inflections  and  rules.  The  foreign  lan- 
guage is  never  spoken,  and  pronunciation  is  considered 
unimportant. 

This  method  has  fallen  into  discredit;  and  while  it  is 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  ASSOCIATION  OF  AMERICA        15 

not  yet  entirely  banished  from  classical  instruction,  it  can 
scarcely  be  found,  in  its  original  purity,  among  the  modern 
language  courses  of  any  civilized  region.  It  has,  how- 
ever, certain  undeniable  advantages.  In  the  first  place  it 
trains  the  mnemonic  faculty;  in  the  reaction  against  the 
hard,  unattractive  schooling  of  our  fathers,  modern  peda- 
gogical fashion  has  gone  so  far  that  the  power  of  conscious 
acquisition  and  retention  is  hardly  exercised  at  all;  chil- 
dren go  to  college  or  out  into  life  with  an  embryonic 
memory,  and  the  teacher's  task  rivals  the  labor  of  the 
Danaides.  Secondly,  the  careful  study  of  grammatical 
rules  and  their  nice  application  in  translation  and  com- 
position form  one  of  the  best  possible  exercises  in  close 
reasoning.  It  may  be  urged  that  logical  processes  are  not 
natural  to  the  child;  neither  are  they  natural  to  the  un- 
instructed  adult;  but  to  be  a  successful  student  or  an 
intelligent  citizen,  a  boy  or  man  must  be  able  to  arrive  at 
rational  conclusions.  Hence  it  is  one  of  the  chief  duties  of 
education  to  afford  practice  in  clear  and  orderly  thinking. 
The  principal  value  of  arithmetic  and  algebra  as  secondary 
school  studies  lies  in  the  fact  that  in  them  right  and  wrong 
reasoning  are  immediately  and  unmistakably  distinguished 
by  their  results.  In  most  subjects  the  white  and  black  are 
not  so  clearly  defined;  between  them  lies  a  broad  gray 
zone,  the  region  of  "  not  quite  correct "  and  "  not  alto- 
gether bad,"  and  it  is  toward  this  neutral  belt  that  nearly 
all  the  pupil's  efforts  tend.  The  children  "  don't  see  why  " 
their  answer  is  not  as  good  as  any  other,  and  the  sloth  and 
slovenliness  native  to  the  untrained  human  mind  remain 
undisturbed.  Now,  grammatical  analysis  and  synthesis, 
while  less  mechanical  and  more  varied  in  their  operation 
than  elementary  mathematics,  are  nearly  or  quite  equal  to  it 


l6  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  TWELVE  OF 

as  a  means  of  inculcating  the  habit  of  accurate  ratiocina- 
tion. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  grammar  method  is  open  to 
criticism  on  the  ground  that  it  neglects  two  of  the  most 
important  objects  of  foreign-language  study :  the  broaden- 
ing of  the  mind  through  contact  with  the  life,  the  ideas, 
and  the  forms  of  thought  and  expression  of  different  times 
and  countries ;  and  the  cultivation  of  the  artistic  sense  by 
the  appreciative  study  of  literary  masterpieces.  A  still 
more  potent  objection  is  the  contention  that  pure  gram- 
mar is  not  calculated  to  inspire  interest  in  pupils  of  the 
high-school  age.  This  objection  seems  to  be  well  founded, 
and,  if  so,  it  is  a  fatal  one ;  for  modern  pedagogy,  if  it  has 
accomplished  nothing  else,  has  established  the  fact  that 
interest  is  absolutely  essential  to  the  performance  of  the 
best  work  in  any  field.  It  appears,  then,  that  the  day  of  the 
pure  grammar  method  is  past ;  but  while  devising  a  system 
more  in  accordance  with  the  principles  and  the  possibilities 
of  our  time,  let  us  not  forget  that  the  old-fashioned  way 
had  its  good  features. 

THE   NATURAL   METHOD 

At  the  opposite  pedagogical  pole  from  the  process  just 
described,  we  find  the  conversational  or  "  natural " 
method.  This  educational  "  naturalism "  is  a  reaction 
against  the  inflexible  systematism  of  earlier  teachers;  we 
should,  therefore,  expect  it  to  be  somewhat  aggressive 
and  somewhat  formless,  more  given  to  pulling  down  than 
to  building  up.  It  is  a  principle,  an  impulse,  rather  than  a 
plan;  and  its  products  depend,  to  a  greater  extent  than 
those  of  any  other  school,  on  the  personality  of  the  in- 
structor. Too  often  the  results  of  a  protracted  and  sup- 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  ASSOCIATION  OF  AMERICA        I/ 

posedly  successful  course  of  unalloyed  conversation  are  a 
rapid,  but  unintelligible  pronunciation,  the  fluent  use  of 
incorrect  forms,  and,  worst  of  all,  a  most  discouraging 
self-complacency.  Some  peculiarly  gifted  teachers  have 
succeeded  in  combining  alertness  with  a  reasonable  degree 
of  accuracy,  but  it  will  probably  be  found,  in  all  such  cases, 
that  the  instructor  has  resorted  to  devices  not  strictly 
"  natural." 

What  is  the  genuine  "  natural  method  ?  "  In  its  extreme 
form,  it  consists  of  a  series  of  monologues  by  the  teacher, 
interspersed  with  exchanges  of  question  and  answer  be- 
tween instructor  and  pupil — all  in  the  foreign  language; 
almost  the  only  evidence  of  system  is  the  arrangement,  in 
a  general  way,  of  the  easier  discourses  and  dialogues  at 
the  beginning,  and  the  more  difficult  at  the  end.  A  great 
deal  of  pantomime  accompanies  the  talk.  With  the  aid 
of  this  gesticulation,  by  attentive  listening,  and  by  dint  of 
much  repetition  the  beginner  comes  to  associate  certain 
acts  and  objects  with  certain  combinations  of  sound,  and 
finally  reaches  the  point  of  reproducing  the  foreign  words 
or  phrases.  When  he  has  arrived  at  this  stage,  the  ex- 
pressions already  familiar  are  connected  with  new  ones  in 
such  a  way  that  the  former  give  the  clue  to  the  latter,  and 
the  vocabulary  is  rapidly  extended,  even  general  and  ab- 
stract ideas  being  ultimately  brought  within  the  student's, 
comprehension.  The  mother  tongue  is  strictly  banished, 
not  only  from  the  pupil's  lips,  but,  as  far  as  possible,  from 
his  mind.  Not  until  a  considerable  familiarity  with  the 
spoken  idiom  has  been  attained  is  the  scholar  permitted  to 
see  the  foreign  language  in  print;  the  study  of  grammar 
is  reserved  for  a  still  later  period.  Composition  consists  of 
the  written  reproduction  of  the  phrases  orally  acquired. 


l8  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  TWELVE  OF 

This  method — if  "method"  is  the  proper  term — is  based 
on  two  general  ideas;  one  true,  the  other  false.  The  first 
is  the  belief  that  the  interest  so  necessary  to  the  successful 
prosecution  of  any  study  (and  especially  of  language 
work)  can  most  easily  be  aroused  by  the  actual  spoken  use 
of  the  foreign  tongue.  The  second  is  the  theory  that  a  boy 
or  man  can  best  learn  a  new  language  in  the  manner  in 
which  an  infant  first  acquires  its  native  speech.  Hence 
comes  the  epithet  "  natural."  The  advocates  of  this  view 
overlook,  first,  the  fact  that  the  child  requires  eight  or  ten 
years  of  incessant  practice  to  gain  even  a  tolerable  com- 
mand of  its  own  tongue,  and,  secondly,  the  vast  difference 
between  the  mind  of  the  baby  and  that  of  the  youth.  The 
really  natural  methods  of  acquisition  at  these  two  stages 
of  development  are  almost  diametrically  opposed.  Let  us 
consider,  for  instance,  the  learning  of  pronunciation.  The 
newborn  child,  after  various  unsuccessful  experiments, 
reproduces  sounds  correctly  because  it  has  no  previous 
habits  of  speech  to  contend  with.  The  boy  or  man,  unless 
he  is  phonetically  trained  or  exceptionally  acute  of  hearing, 
does  not  imitate  at  all.  He  merely  substitutes  for  the  sev- 
eral strange  vowels  and  consonants  the  English  sounds 
which  the  foreign  ones  happen  to  suggest  to  him.  That  is 
why  the  pronunciation  of  conversational  classes  is  gener- 
ally not  a  whit  better  than  that  of  scholars  taught  after  the 
most  antiquated  fashion.  In  the  attempt  to  inculcate  the 
other  elements  of  speech — inflections,  syntax,  and  phrase- 
ology— the  purely  imitative  process  shows  itself  to  be  al- 
most equally  inadequate.  We  may  justly  urge,  further- 
more, against  this  style  of  teaching,  that  it  provides  little 
discipline  for  the  intelligence ;  that  it  affords  only  the  poor- 
est kind  of  mnemonic  training ;  that  it  favors  vagueness  of 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  ASSOCIATION  OF  AMERICA        19 

thought  and  imprecision  of  expression,  and,  finally,  that  it 
sacrifices  the  artistic  interest  of  language  study  to  a  so- 
called  "  practical "  one.  On  the  other  hand,  it  certainly 
does  awaken  enthusiasm  among  its  disciples,  and  it  stimu- 
lates and  holds  the  attention. 

The  natural  method  has  been  vehemently  attacked  and 
just  as  vigorously  defended.  At  present  the  violence  of 
the  conflict  has  abated,  and  we  are  able  to  judge  dispas- 
sionately the  results  of  its  introduction  into  our  educational 
life.  Those  results  have  been  mainly  good.  In  summer 
schools  and  other  institutions  that  have  used  the  imita- 
tive process  exclusively  most  of  the  pupils  are  persons 
who  have  had  or  will  soon  get  some  practice  in  grammar 
and  reading.  For  them  the  conversation  lessons  are  sup- 
plementary and  form  a  useful  addition  to  their  training. 
In  schools  and  colleges  that  have  not  accepted  the  "  natu- 
ralistic "  theory  the  fame  of  the  new  method  has  obliged 
teachers  to  adopt  some  of  its  practical  features,  thus  bring- 
ing much-needed  life  and  variety  into  their  instruction.  It 
seems  probable  that  the  next  generation  will  regard  "  natu- 
ralism "  rather  as  a  vivifying  influence  than  as  an  inde- 
pendent method. ' 


1  For  a  description  of  the  natural  method  see  Der  Leitfaden  fur 
den  Unterficht  in  der  deutschen  Sprache,  by  G.  Heness,  and  L. 
Sauveur's  Introduction  to  the  Teaching  of  Living  Languages. 
The  method  is  well  exemplified,  not  only  in  the  Leitfaden,  but  in 
Der  Sprachlehrer  unter  seinen  Schulern,  by  Heness,  and  in  Sau- 
veur's Causeries  avec  mes  eleves  and  Petites  causeries.  All  these 
works  are  now  published  by  Messrs.  Henry  Holt  &  Co.,  of  New 
York. 


2O  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  TWELVE  OF 

THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  METHOD 

Out  of  the  conviction  that  modern-language  study 
should  be  made  attractive,  and  out  of  the  desire  to  adapt 
instruction  to  the  known  workings  of  the  human  mind? 
has  come  a  system  that  seems  more  deserving  of  serious 
attention  than  the  grammar  method  or  the  "  natural  "  style 
of  teaching.  This  is  the  system  invented  by  Gouin  and 
brought  into  general  notice  by  Betis.1 

The  psychological  method  rests  on  the  principle  of  the 
association  of  ideas  and  the  habit  of  "  mental  visualiza- 
tion." The  whole  current  vocabulary  of  a  language,  in 
the  form  of  short,  idiomatic  sentences,  is  divided  up  into 
groups,  every  group  consisting  of  phrases  that  are  inti- 


1  Its  operation  and  results  are  described  at  considerable  length  in 
Die  neueren  Sprachen,  by  R.  Kron  in  III,  i,  2,  3,  4,  5,  6  (published 
separately  under  the  title  Die  Methode  Gouin,  oder  das  Serien- 
System  in  Theorie  und  Praxis,  Marburg,  1896),  and  by  V.  Knorr 
in  III,  8,  and  V,  9.  The  method  has  been  subjected  to  a  searching 
criticism  by  Traugott  in  the  same  periodical,  VI,  6.  It  should  be 
said  here  that  Betis  has  considerably  altered  the  original  plan ; 
and  opinions  are  divided  concerning  the  respective  advantages  ot 
the  two  versions.  The  real  Gouin  system  can  be  studied  in  the. 
author's  Art  d'enseigner  et  d'etudier  les  langues,  Paris,  1880 
(third  edition  in  1897)  ;  the  Betis  or  "  psychological "  method  is 
illustrated  by  a  volume  called  The  Facts  of  Life,  New  York,  1896, 
by  Betis  and  Swan.  Without  presuming  to  pass  judgment  on  the 
merits  of  the  case,  we  shall  confine  ourselves  to  the  revised  plan, 
since  that  is  the  one  more  widely  known  and  the  only  one  that 
has  been  tried  in  America.  It  was  brought  to  the  attention  of  the 
English-speaking  world  in  1892  and  1893  by  the  articles  of  W.  T. 
Stead  in  the  Review  of  Reviews.  In  the  years  1895-1897  it  was 
used  in  Boston,  Mass.,  by  Betis  himself,  and  it  is  now  on  trial  in 
one  of  the  public  high  schools  of  the  same  city. 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  ASSOCIATION  OF  AMERICA        21 

mately  connected  in  subject.  One  group  forms  a  lesson. 
These  brief  divisions  are  gathered  together  in  chapters, 
each  of  which  treats  of  one  general  topic,  and  several  chap- 
ters make  a  "  series."  When  a  pupil  has  gone  through  all 
the  series,  with  numerous  reviews,  he  will  have  mastered 
(so  we  are  told)  the  whole  spoken  language.  Every  les- 
son is  first  worked  out  orally  and  then  studied  by  the  pupil 
from  his  book.  On  presenting  each  new  word  to  the  be- 
ginner the  instructor  exhorts  him  to  close  his  eyes  and 
form  a  distinct  mental  picture  of  the  thing  or  act  repre- 
sented. This  image  (it  is  affirmed)  will  remain  indissolu- 
bly  connected  with  the  word,  and  the  evocation  of  the  one 
will  always  recall  the  other.  Sometimes  real  objects  or 
drawings  are  used,  and  pantomime  is  frequently  resorted 
to ;  but  in  most  cases  reliance  is  placed  on  the  child's  active 
imagination.  It  is  never  considered  a  sin  to  put  in  a  word 
or  two  of  English,  and  at  the  outset  that  language  is  very 
freely  employed.  Although  most  of  the  talking  is  done 
by  the  teacher,  the  pupils  are  constantly  called  upon  to  re- 
peat his  sentences  and  to  answer  questions.  After  the  first 
lessons  written  compositions  may  be  prepared,  made  up  of 
phrases  already  acquired.  Grammatical  instruction  is  be- 
gun early,  concurrently  with  the  other  exercises,  but  the 
reading  of  consecutive  texts  is  postponed  until  the  bulk  of 
the  ordinary  vocabulary  has  been  learned.  Many  innova- 
tions have  been  introduced  into  the  presentation  of  gram- 
mar, but  most  of  them  are  more  radical  in  appearance  than 
in  reality.  Some,  however,  are  extremely  ingenious,  and 
will  doubtless  be  copied  by  instructors  who  do  not  see  fit 
to  adopt  the  whole  system. 

The  Betis  method  has  the  following  obvious  advant- 
ages :     It  trains  the  memory ;  it  fascinates  the  student  and 


22  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  TWELVE  OF 

holds  his  attention  more  closely  than  any  other  mode 
of  teaching  now  in  vogue;  it  gives  the  pupil,  in  a 
reasonably  short  time,  a  ready  command  over  a  large,  well- 
arranged,  and  well-digested  vocabulary;  it  affords, 
through  some  of  its  conversational  groups,  an  insight  into 
the  life  of  a  foreign  country.  As  for  the  other  side,  the 
system  seems,  as  far  as  we  can  ascertain  the  facts,  to  lay 
itself  open  to  these  criticisms :  It  affords  but  little  oppor- 
tunity for  the  exercise  of  judgment;  it  entirely  neglects, 
in  the  first  years,  the  cultivation  of  the  aesthetic  sense,  and 
assigns  literary  study  to  a  stage  which  high-school  pupils 
will  scarcely  ever  reach.  Moreover,  its  treatment  of  pro- 
nunciation is  decidedly  unsatisfactory ;  but  this  defect  can 
probably  be  remedied  without  disturbing  the  rest  of  the 
scheme. 

THE  PHONETIC   METHOD 

Pronunciation,  neglected  in  the  three  modes  of  instruc- 
tion just  mentioned,  is  the  very  foundation  of  a  system  that 
has  of  late  years  attracted  attention  in  alt  northern  Eu- 
rope, and  has  gained  a  considerable  footing  in  Germany 
and  Scandinavia. '  Its  advocates,  while  not  entirely  free 


1  The  names  by  which  it  is  known  are  the  "  reform,"  the  "  new," 
and  the  "  phonetic  "  methods.  It  was  outlined  by  Victor  in  his 
famous  monograph,  Der  Sprachunterricht  musz  umkehren  (1882, 
new  edition,  Heilbronn,  1886),  and  its  principal  features  are  set 
forth  on  the  cover  of  every  number  of  the  Maitre  phonetique. 
Both  this  periodical  (the  organ  of  the  Association  Phonetique  In- 
ternationale) and  Die  neueren  Sprachen,  edited  by  Victor,  are 
devoted  to  the  propagation  of  the  phonetic  method.  The  list  of 
publications — books,  pamphlets,  and  articles — which  deal  with  the 
"  reform  method  "  is  very  large.  A  complete  bibliography  down 
to  1893  is  given  by  H.  Breymann  in  Die  neusprachliche  Reform- 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  ASSOCIATION  OF  AMERICA        23 

from  the  intolerance  and  the  self-confidence  so  character- 
istic of  enthusiastic  reformers,  are  men  of  sound  scholar- 
ship, successful  experience,  and  good  standing  in  the  edu- 
cational world.  As  far  as  can  be  ascertained,  they  have 
arrived  at  results  which  go  far  toward  justifying  their 
seemingly  extravagant  claims.  There  have  been  few  at- 
tempts to  introduce  the  phonetic  teaching  in  this  country ; 
probably  the  most  extensive  trial  of  it  has  been  made  at  the 
Johns  Hopkins  University. 

The  phonetic  method  resembles  the  "  natural "  and  the 
"  psychological "  schools  in  that  it  takes  the  modern 
spoken  language  as  a  basis  and  at  first  relies  mainly  on 
oral  instruction,  using  as  far  as  possible  the  foreign  lan- 
guage itself  as  a  medium  of  communication.  Unlike  most 


Litteratur  von  1876-1893,  eine  bibliographisch-kritische  Ubersicht, 
Leipzig,  1893.  Two  articles  by  leading  exponents  of  the  method 
have  appeared  in  American  journals,  viz,  "  A  new  method  of  lan- 
guage teaching,"  by  W.  Victor,  in  the  Educational  Review,  Vol. 
VI,  p.  351,  and  "  Phonetics  and  reform  method,"  by  A.  Rambeau, 
in  Modern  Language  Notes,  Vol.  VIII,  p.  161.  An  excellent  re- 
port of  observations  made  during  a  six  months'  tour  of  inspection 
of  German  schools  is  given  by  Mary  Brebner  in  The  Method  of 
Teaching  Modern  Languages  in  Germany :  New  York,  Mac- 
millan,  1898,  and  this  is  now  admirably  supplemented  by  the 
work  of  Karl  Breul,  The  Teaching  of  Modern  Foreign  Languages 
in  our  [English]  Secondary  Schools,  New  York,  Macmillan,  1898. 
A  conservative  and  at  the  same  time  fairly  representative  pre- 
sentation of  the  aims  and  methods  of  the  "  reformers  "  is  given 
by  W.  Munch  in  his  and  F.  Glauning's  Didaktik  und  Methodik 
des  franzosischen  und  englischen  Unterrichts,  Sonderausgabe  aus 
A.  Baumeister's  Handbuch  der  Erziehungs-und  Unterrichtslehre 
fur  hohere  Schulen.  On  pp.  102  sq.  is  to  be  found  a  select  list  of 
the  more  important  writings  on  method  in  modern-language 
teaching  which  have  appeared  in  recent  years. 


24  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  TWELVE  OF 

"  conversation  "  courses,  however,  it  is  very  systematically 
constructed  and  its  beginning  is  strictly  scientific.  It  be- 
gins with  a  training  of  the  ear  and  the  vocal  organs,  the 
pupils  being  thoroughly  drilled  in  the  vowels  and  conso- 
nants of  the  strange  tongue.  These  sounds  are  considered 
both  as  isolated  phenomena  and  as  elements  of  idiomatic 
phrases.  The  phrases,  in  turn,  are  combined  into  dia- 
logues, descriptions,  and  stories.  At  this  stage  printed 
texts  are  used,  but  only  in  phonetic  notation.  The  ordi- 
nary spelling  is  carefully  kept  from  the  students  during 
the  elementary  period.  It  is  said  that  the  transition  from 
sound  symbols  to  standard  orthography  presents  no  seri- 
ous difficulty.  Objects,  pictures,  and  maps  are  constantly 
displayed,  and  every  effort  is  made  to  familiarize  the  class 
with  the  surroundings,  the  institutions,  the  habits,  the 
character,  and  the  mode  of  thought  of  the  people  whose 
language  they  are  learning.  The  phonetic  texts  gradually 
increase  in  length  and  difficulty,  and  some  of  the  latest  are 
representative  of  literature.  Inflections  and  syntax  are 
studied  inductively.  Composition  consists  first  of  the  oral 
and  written  reproduction  of  matter  already  heard  or  read, 
then  of  combinations  of  familiar  phrases.  Systematic 
grammar  is  reserved  for  a  late  stage,  and  translation 
comes  last  of  all. 

It  is  evident  that  this  sort  of  instruction  requires  a  spec- 
ial preparation  and  a  special  apparatus.  Although  the 
pupils  are  not  taught  phonetics,  it  is  essential  that  the 
teacher  be  something  of  a  phonetician ;  and  the  present 
difficulty  of  obtaining  adequate  instruction  in  the  science 
of  speech-sounds  has  doubtless  done  much  to  hinder  the 
rapid  general  adoption  of  Victor's  programme.  Let  us 
hope  that  in  the  near  future  such  training  will  be  brought 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  ASSOCIATION  OF  AMERICA       25 

within  the  reach  of  all  by  means  of  courses  conducted, 
in  our  universities  and  in  our  summer  schools,  by  men  who 
unite  with  the  necessary  scientific  attainments  a  practical 
knowledge  of  the  requirements  of  American  pedagogy. 
Phonetic  texts,  too,  though  not  absolutely  indispensable, 
are  of  the  greatest  assistance.1 

This  method,  while  it  lacks  the  logical  discipline  of  the 
old  grammatical  instruction,  is  more  successful  than  any 
other  in  forming  a  good  pronunciation  and  in  giving  pupils 
a  ready  and  accurate  control  of  the  spoken  language. 
The  training  it  affords  can  hardly  fail,  moreover,  to  im- 
prove the  quality  of  the  student's  voice  and  his  enuncia- 
tion of  his  mother  tongue.  From  the  standpoint  of  mne- 
monic education,  too,  it  ranks  high.  In  stimulating  in- 
terest it  is  nearly  equal  to  the  "  natural "  and  "  psycho- 
logical "  courses,  and  it  is  second  only  to  the  latter  in  hold- 
ing the  attention.  The  training  of  the  attention  should, 
by  the  way,  be  regarded  as  an  important  part  of  any  peda- 
gogical scheme ;  for  the  habit  of  inattention — the  utter  in- 
ability of  pupils  to  fix  their  minds  on  anything  for  more 
than  a  few  minutes  at  a  time — is  the  most  serious  obstacle 
that  confronts  our  secondary  teachers.  The  attempt  to 
give  scholars,  by  ear  and  eye,  by  description  and  by  the 
use  of  objects  and  pictures,  a  correct  and  vivid  idea  of 
foreign  life  has  been  carried  further  by  the  phoneticians 
than  by  any  other  school ;  but  there  is  no  reason,  save  the 
lack  of  rightly  prepared  instructors,  why  this  feature 


Some  good  ones  are  already  available:    For  French,  F.  Beyer 
and  P.  Passy ;   Rambeau  and  J.  Passy  have  provided  us  with  suit- 
able chrestomathies ;   in  German,  we  have  a  little  book  by  Victor; 
the  Maitre  phonetique  furthermore,  is  constantly  furnishing  m? 
terial   in   various   languages. 


26  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  TWELVE  OF 

should  not  be  introduced  into  every  method;  the  neglect 
of  it  defeats  one  of  the  principal  objects  of  modern- 
language  study.  Another  means  to  the  same  end  is  the 
system  of  international  correspondence  between  school 
children  of  different  countries. 


1  Mentioned  by  Victor  in  Die  neueren  Sprachen,  V,  3,  165,  and 
described  by  Professor  Magill  in  Modern  Language  Notes,  XIII, 
3.  The  plan  was  first  suggested  in  the  Revue  universitaire  for 
June,  1896,  by  Prof.  P.  Mieille,  who  gave  an  account  of  his  efforts 
to  bring  about  an  interchange  of  letters  between  French  children 
studying  English  and  English  children  studying  French.  His  idea 
attracted  immediate  attention  in  France  and  England,  ere  long  also 
in  Germany,  Italy,  and  the  United  States,  and  it  was  soon  per- 
ceived that  it  could  be  turned  to  profit,  not  only  for  school  chil- 
dren, but  also  for  adults,  especially  for  teachers.  Having  already 
been  tried  on  a  large  scale,  the  plan  has  passed  the  experimental 
stage  and  may  be  confidently  recommended  as  a  valuable  aid  in 
the  learning  of  a  living  language.  At  first,  correspondents  could 
be  secured  only  through  certain  journals,  which  published  lists  of 
names  in  consideration  of  a  subscription.  Later,  on  the  initiative  of 
the  Manuel  general  de  1'instruction  primaire,  a  large  committee 
was  appointed,  which  now  undertakes  gratuitously  to  bring  corres- 
pondents together.  The  vice-president  of  the  English  section  for 
women  is  Miss  E.  Williams,  professeur  aux  Ecoles  de  Sevres  et  de 
Fontinay,  whose  addres?  is  No.  6  rue  de  la  Sorbonne,  Paris.  Miss 
Williams's  secretary,  who  conducts  her  correspondence,  is  Mme. 
Rossignol,  117  rue  Notre  Dame  de  Champs,  Paris.  The  vice- 
president  of  the  English  section  for  men  is  Prof.  A.  Mouchet,  16 
rue  de  St.  Guillaume,  Asnieres  (pres  Paris).  Any  one  of  these 
three  can  be  addressed  by  American  teachers  desiring  French  cor- 
respondents for  themselves  or  for  their  pupils.  In  Germany  the 
plan  has  been  taken  up  prominently  by  Dr.  K.  A.  Martin  Hart- 
mann,  of  Leipsic,  who  has  reported  upon  a  trial  of  it  in  the  Saxon 
schools  and  published  a  body  of  Vorschlage  relating  to  it.  The 
advantages  of  the  system  are  well  set  forth  by  Petri  in  Die  neueren 
Sprachen,  VI,  511,  and  objections  to  it  are  answered  by  Hartmann 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  ASSOCIATION  OF  AMERICA       27 

What  are  the  disadvantages  of  the  "  phonetic  "  plan, 
when  we  consider  it  from  the  point  of  view  of  our  Ameri- 
can high  schools?  In  the  first  place,  it  seems,  like  other 
"  oral  "  methods,  to  overlook  the  importance  of  literary 
education,  for  it  postpones  the  reading  of  real  books  to  a 
stage  that  is  beyond  our  secondary  period.  In  Europe, 
where  intercourse  between  foreign  countries  is  easy  and 
frequent,  and  a  command  of  several  languages  has  a 
recognized  commercial  value,  it  is  natural  that  a  practical 
mastery  of  the  strange  tongue  should  seem  highly  desira- 
ble. With  us,  isolated  as  we  are,  a  speaking  knowledge 
of  French  and  German  has,  except  for  teachers,  but  little 
pecuniary  worth ;  and  even  in  the  case  of  a  student  who  has 
acquired  it  for  pleasure  alone,  the  opportunities  for  prac- 
tice are  so  few  that  his  hardly  won  accomplishment  will 
soon  slip  from  him.  Familiarity  with  pronunciation  and 
a  certain  ability  to  handle  foreign  constructions  are,  in- 
deed, essential  to  a  proper  appreciation  of  the  literature; 
but  if  literary  study  is  not  reached,  of  what  avail  is  the 
preparatory  training?  For  we  must  bear  in  mind  that  the 
vast  majority  of  our  pupils — those  for  whom  the  course 
should  be  planned — w.ill  not  continue  their  education  be- 
yond the  high  school.  It  has  been  pointed  out  that  oral 
work,  besides  exercising  the  organs  of  speech,  arouses  in- 
terest and  fosters  a  certain  alertness  of  mind,  and  is  there- 
fore valuable  for  its  own  sake.  We  may  question,  how- 
ever, whether  these  benefits  make  up  for  the  sacrifice  of 
all  the  aesthetic  culture  and  the  intellectual  broadening 
that  come  only  from  the  reading  of  good  books. 


in  the  same  journal.  VI,  324.  A  second  and  more  extended  article 
by  Prof.  Edw.  H.  Magill,  of  Swarthmore  College,  Pennsylvania, 
may  be  found  in  Modern  Language  Notes  for  February,  1899. 


28  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  TWELVE  OF 

To  this  criticism  the  European  advocates  of  the  method 
would  surely  reply  that  they  believe  in  abundant  reading, 
after  the  student  has  mastered  the  spoken  idiom.  It  ap: 
pears,  then,  that  the  real  fault  of  their  programme,  as 
applied  to  our  conditions,  is  not  so  much  that  its  underly- 
ing principle  is  entirely  incompatible  with  our  creed  as 
that  it  calls  for  much  more  time  than  we  allot  to  foreign 
language.  In  fact,  we  may  well  doubt  whether  with  our 
three  or  four  hours  a  week  for  three  or  four  years  our. 
scholars  would  ever  reach  the  end  even  of  the  elementary, 
stage ;  they  certainly  would  not  go  beyond  it ;  their  acqui- 
sition would  be  only  a  fragment.  If  we  should  wish  to 
introduce  this  or  any  other  thorough-going  method,  w.e 
should  be  obliged  to  increase  the  importance  of  French 
and  German  in  the  school  curriculum ;  and  such  increase 
is  desirable  from  every  point  of  view.  Not  only  should 
the  pupils  who  are  intending  to  continue  these  studies  in 
college  receive  the  best  possible  preliminary  training,  but 
all  children  who  begin  the  subjects  at  all  should  give  them 
time  enough  to  admit  of  an  extended  course,  conducted 
according  to  the  most  enlightened  principles.  In  order  to 
gain  the  necessary  hours,  the  foreign  language  must  be 
taken  up  earlier,  or  some  other  high-school  topic  must  be 
sacrificed.  A  few  things  thoroughly  and  intelligently 
done  make  the  best  secondary  discipline.  As  long,  how- 
ever, as  our  present  conditions  last  it  is  clear  that  we  must 
give  up  something.  Until  we  are  all  willing  greatly  to 
lengthen  the  time  given  to  the  linguistic  part  of  our  child- 
ren's education,  we  shall  have  to  renounce  the  idea  of  a 
full,  well-rounded  knowledge  of  French  and  German,  and, 
selecting  the  portion  of  the  subject  that  appears  rnost  im- 
portant for  the  greatest  number,  devote  ourselves  to  the 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  ASSOCIATION  OF  AMERICA        2$ 

cultivation  of  that  restricted  field.  Considerations  of  this 
nature  have  led  many  thoughtful  teachers  to  adopt  a  mode 
of  instruction  that  we  may  call  the  "  reading  method." 

THE  READING  METHOD 

The  title  explains  itself.  The  study  of  texts  from  the 
very  beginning  of  the  course,  abundant  practice  in  transla- 
tion at  sight,  leading  ultimately  to  the  ability  to  read  the 
foreign  language  with  ease  and  without  the  interposition 
of  English,  are  the  principal  features  of  this  programme. 
Grammar  and  composition  are  regarded  merely  as  a  help 
to  reading,  and  are  reduced  to  the  essentials;  sometimes 
accidence  and  syntax  are  first  learned  inductively,  but 
oftener  a  small  text-book  is  used  concurrently  with  transla- 
tion. Great  importance  is  attached  to  the  use  of  good 
English  in  the  renderings.  Pronunciation  receives  scant 
attention ;  there  is  little  or  no  oral  exercise. 

This  method  has  been  much  used  of  late  in  our  schools 
and  colleges,  especially  in  those  that  have  large  classes,  a 
short  course,  and  an  American  teacher.  The  great  ad- 
vantage of  the  process  is  that  it  quickly  enables  the  stu- 
dent to  read  French  and  German  literature — not  with  the 
complete  appreciation  that  only  an  all-around  command 
of  the  language  can  give,  but  with  the  same  kind  of  intelli- 
gence and  enjoyment  with  which  good  classical  scholars 
read  Latin.  Indirectly,  it  helps  the  pupil  to  form  a  good 
style,  and  to  increase  the  volume  and  precision  of  his 
English  vocabulary;  it  cultivates  the  taste  by  dwelling 
upon  delicacies  of  expression ;  it  exercises  the  memory 
through  the  enforced  retention  of  words  and  idioms;  it 
trains  the  linguistic  sense  by  calling  attention  to  the  points 


30  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  TWELVE  OF 

of  resemblance  and  difference  in  various  tongues ;  and  the 
exact  fitting  of  phrase  to  thought  forms  an  excellent  disci- 
pline for  the  judgment. 

On  the  other  hand,  in  addition  to  the  fact  that  it  deals 
with  only  one  aspect  of  language,  the  reading  method  is 
lacking  in  vivacity  and  in  stimulus  to  the  attention;  it 
interests  only  the  more  serious  pupils.  Moreover,  the  con- 
tinued use,  year  after  year,  of  an  easy  way  of  teaching — 
for  it  is  comparatively  easy,  and  requires  but  little  special 
training — may  prove  demoralizing  to  the  instructor,  dull 
his  appetite  for  self -improvement,  and  make  him  indolent 
and  easily  satisfied  with  his  qualifications. 

SECTION  IV 
METHOD  AS  RELATED  TO  THE  PREPARATION  OF  TEACHERS 

If  all  our  classes  were  in  the  hands  of  born  teachers, 
ideally  prepared  for  their  work,  advice  with  respect  to 
method  would  be  quite  superfluous.  Every  teacher  would 
create  for  himself  the  method  best  suited  to  his  class  and 
to  his  own  peculiar  gifts.  His  personality  would  infuse 
life  and  efficacy  into  any  process  he  would  be  likely  to 
adopt.  But  in  a  profession  so  widely  pursued  we  can  not 
expect  the  majority  of  its  followers  to  show,  genuine  voca- 
tion. The  most  of  our  teachers  are  made,  and  we  must  see 
to  it  that  they  be  as  well  made  as  possible.  It  can  not  be 
too  strongly  urged  upon  school  authorities  that  if  modern- 
language  instruction  is  to  do  the  good  work  which  it  is 
capable  of  doing  it  must  be  given  by  thoroughly  competent 
teachers.  The  committee's  investigations  show,  and  it  is 
a  pleasure  to  testify  to  the  fact,  that  we  already  have  a 
goodly  number  of  secondary  teachers  who  answer  to  that 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  ASSOCIATION  OF  AMERICA       31 

description.  Nevertheless,  our  general  standard  is  still 
far  too  low.  For  some  time  to  come  the  majority  of  our 
teachers  will  necessarily  be  guided  to  a  large  extent,  in 
their  choice  of  methods,  by  the  consideration  of  their  own 
competence. 

But  while  it  is  easy  to  insist,  broadly,  upon  the  import- 
ance of  adequate  preparation  for  teachers,  it  is  not  so  easy 
to  define,  in  exact  terms,  the  minimum  of  attainment  which 
can  be  regarded  as  sufficient.  Much  will  always  depend 
upon  personality,  upon  general  alertness  of  mind  and  apti- 
tude for  teaching.  The  best  of  teachers  learn  with  their 
pupils,  and  it  will  sometimes  happen  that  one  who  knows 
too  little  of  his  subject  will  teach  it  better  than  another 
who  knows  more.  Nevertheless,  it  remains  broadly  true, 
and  should  never  be  forgotten  for  a  moment,  that  what  the 
teacher  most  needs  is  to  be  a  master  of  his  subject.  With 
the  sense  of  all-around  mastery  come  independence  of 
judgment  and  the  right  kind  of  self-assurance.  Without 
this  sense  the  attempt  to  follow  someone  else's  method, 
however  good  the  method  may  be  in  the  hands  of  its  in- 
ventor, can  never  produce  the  best  results. 

To  be  ideally  prepared  for  giving  instruction  in  a 
modern  language,  even  in  a  secondary  school,  one  should 
have,  aside  from  the  ability  to  teach  and  the  general  per- 
sonal culture  necessary  to  secure  the  respect  and  attach- 
ment of  pupils,  a  thorough  practical  command  of  the 
language  to  be  taught,  a  solid  knowledge  of  its  literature, 
and  a  first-hand  acquaintance  with  the  foreign  life,  of 
which  the  literature  is  the  reflection.  To  be  decently  pre- 
pared, he  should,  at  least,  have  read  so  much  in  the  recent 
literature  of  the  language  that  he  can  read  about  as  easily 
as  he  would  read  matter  of  the  same  kind  in  English.  He 


32  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  TWELVE  OF 

should  have  studied  the  principal  works  of  the  great 
writers,  and  should  have  taken  a  course  in  the  general  his- 
tory of  the  literature.  He  should  know  thoroughly  the 
grammar  of  the  language  in  its  present  form.  If  he  has 
some  knowledge  of  the  historical  development  of  forms, 
such  knowledge  will  help  him  in  his  teaching,  especially  in 
the  teaching  of  French  to  pupils  who  have  studied  Latin. 
He  should  be  able  to  pronounce  the  language  intelligently 
and  with  reasonable  accuracy,  though  he  may  not  have  the 
perfect  "  accent "  of  one  who  is  to  the  manner  born.  He 
should  be  able  to  write  a  letter  or  a  short  essay  in  the 
language  without  making  gross  mistakes  in  grammar  or 
idiom,  and  to  carry  on  an  ordinary  conversation  in  the 
language  without  a  sense  of  painful  embarrassment. 
Even  this  degree  of  attainment  will  usually  require  resi- 
dence abroad  of  those  for  whom  English  is  the  mother 
tongue,  unless  they  have  enjoyed  exceptional  opportuni- 
ties in  this  country.  In  any  case,  the  residence  abroad  is 
greatly  to  be  desired. 

In  insisting  that  secondary  teachers  of  a  modern  lan- 
guage should  be  able  to  speak  the  language  with  at  least 
moderate  facility  and  correctness,  the  members  of  the 
committee  are  well  aware  that  they  set  up  a  standard 
higher  than  that  which  has  very  generally  been  deemed 
sufficient.  But  it  is  a  standard  to  which  we  must  come. 
Many  of  the  best  schools  have  already  come  to  it.  Nor 
need  we  fear  that  such  a  standard  will  result  permanently 
to  the  advantage  of  the  foreign-born  teacher  in^e  compe- 
tition for  positions.  If  we  leave  out  of  account  cases  of 
exceptional  individual  talent  for  teaching,  the  general 
principle  holds  good  that  the  best  teacher  of  a  foreign 
language  is  a  person  of  the  same  nationality  as  his  pupils 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  ASSOCIATION  OF  AMERICA        33 

who  is  thoroughly  at  home  in  the  language  to  be  taught. 
The  American-born  teacher  will  thus  have  a  substantial 
advantage  over  his  foreign-born  competitor,  but  he  can 
not  afford  to  be  vulnerable  in  so  vital  a  point  as  the  prac- 
tical command  of  the  language  in  which  he  undertakes  to 
give  instruction. 

To  many  of  our  teachers  residence  in  Europe  will  prob- 
ably seem  out  of  the  question.  Those  who,  by  dint  of 
thrift  and  sacrifice,  contrive  to  cross  the  ocean  can  now 
enjoy  fine  opportunities  in  the  way  of  summer  courses  at 
Paris,  Geneva,  Jena,  Marburg,  Greifswald,  and  else- 
where. The  others  must  content  themselves  for  the  time 
being  with  a  somewhat  inadequate  equipment,  the  defects 
of  which,  however,  can  be  to  a  great  extent  remedied  by 
the  reading  of  well-chosen  books,  by  work  in  American 
summer  schools,  and  by  association  with  foreigners  in  this 
country.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  our  colleges  and  universi- 
ties will  recognize,  more  largely  than  they  have  hereto- 
fore recognized,  the  need  of  practical  courses  for  teachers 
of  the  modern  languages. 

With  respect,  now,  to  the  main  subject  of  this  section, 
it  is  hardly  necessary  to  observe  that  the  teacher  who  can 
not  himself  speak  his  modern  language  should  not  attempt 
seriously  to  teach  his  pupils  to  speak  it.  He  should  not 
try  to  work  the  "  natural  method,"  or  any  private  varia- 
tion thereof;  if  he  does,  he  will  be  almost  certain  to  do 
more  harm  than  good.  He  may  and  should  provide  mem- 
ory exer^  i  £s  that  exhibit  natural  colloquial  forms,  but  in 
so  doing  he  should  be  guided  by  some  good  manual,  and 
make  that  the  basis  of  the  class-room  work.  The  native 
German  or  Frenchman  will  naturally  think  that  success 
will  be  easy  for  him  in  a  "  conversation  "  course,  but  it  is 


34  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  TWELVE  OF 

for  him  to  remember  that  he  can  accomplish  nothing  worth 
while  without  system;  that  he  must  have  the  proper 
books;  that  he  can  not  comprehend  his  pupils'  difficulties 
unless  he  knows  English  well,  and  that  he  can  never  gov- 
ern his  class  unless  he  has  a  sympathetic  understanding 
of  American  character.  For  the  "  psychological,"  and 
still  more  for  the  "  phonetic  "  programme,  special  study 
is  necessary,  and  no  one,  foreigner  or  native,  should  im- 
agine that  he  can  cope  with  such  a  method  offhand. 

But  if  the  availability  and  the  goodness  of  the  several 
methods  described  in  the  preceding  section  depend  mainly 
upon  the  fitness  of  the  teacher,  they  also  depend  upon  the 
age  of  pupils,  the  probable  length  of  the  course,  and  the 
size  of  classes.  If  the  study  begins  in  childhood  and  the 
beginner  is  looking  forward  to  a  long  and  thorough  course 
of  the  best  possible  kind,  it  is  obviously  the  right  thing  that 
he  devote  a  large  amount  of  time  at  first  to  the  acquisition 
of  a  faultless  pronunciation  and  an  easy  command  of  the 
colloquial  language.  He  will  then  have  the  best  possible 
foundation  for  literary  study.  But  if  he  begins  later  in 
life  and  the  problem  is  to  realize  the  maximum  of  benefit 
from  a  limited  course,  he  should  devote  less  time  to  the 
colloquial  language  and  proceed  more  quickly  to  the  study 
of  literature.  It  is  also  evident  that  in  classes  of  consider- 
able size  the  most  efficient  colloquial  practice  can  not  be 
given ;  the  pupils  may  learn  to  understand  the  language 
(and  this  is  of  course  well  worth  while)  but  they  will  not 
learn  to  speak  with  much  facility.  If  this  report  were  in- 
tended to  meet  ideal  conditions,  that  is,  if  it  were  addressed 
to  teachers  whose  training  would  permit  them  to  choose 
freely  from  the  methods  that  have  been  described  and  to 
combine  them  with  wise  discretion,  the  committee  might 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  ASSOCIATION  OF  AMERICA        35 

be  disposed  (although  in  that  case,  as  we  have  already  re- 
marked, advice  w.ith  regard  to  method  would  hardly  be 
needed)  to  make  some  such  recommendations  as  the  fol- 
lowing :  For  very  young  children,  say  up  to  the  age  of  ten, 
the  "  natural  "  or  imitative  method  of  the  nurse  or  the  gov- 
erness, with  some  help  perhaps  from  the  "  psychological  " 
method.  For  a  course  of  six  years,  beginning,  say,  at  the 
age  of  twelve,  a  combination  during  the  first  three  years 
of  the  "  psychological  "  and  "  phonetic  "  methods,  accom- 
panied by  some  study  of  grammar;  after  that  a  more 
thorough  study  of  grammar,  together  with  the  read- 
ing and  translation  of  good  literature,  supplemented 
by  oral  practice  in  the  language  and  written  composition. 
For  a  four  years'  course,  beginning  in  the  high  school,  we 
should  recommend  a  similar  procedure,  the  division  be- 
tween the  "  psychological-phonetic  "  and  the  "  reading  " 
method  coming,  however,  somewhat  earlier,  say,  after  the 
first  year.  In  combining  the  "  psychological  "  and  "  pho- 
netic "  methods  the  general  plan  of  the  former  would  be 
followed,  while  the  latter  would  be  imitated  in  its  treatment 
of  pronunciation  and,  so  far  at  least  as  French  is  con- 
TTtSxuse  of  phonetically  transcribed  texts.  For 
my  shorter  course  we  should  advise  the  "  reading " 
method,  accompanied,  however,  by  scientific  training  in 
pronunciation,  drill  in  the  rudiments  of  grammar,  and  a 
moderate  amount  0f  oral  practice. 

Recognizing  the  somewhat  idealistic  character  of  these 
recommendations,  the  committee  will  present  further  on 
a  scheme  of  secondary  courses,  with  suggestions  relating 
thereto,  which  are  meant  to  be  adapted  to  existing  condi- 
tions. Firstrhowever,  it  is  necessary  to  deal  briefly  with 
another  subject,  or  rather  with  two  closely  related  subjects, 


36  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  TWELVE  OF 

which  are  more  or  less  involved  in  any  consideration  of 
the  modern  languages  in  secondary  education. 

SECTION  V 

MODERN   LANGUAGES  IN  THE   PRIMARY   GRADES;  THE 
EXTENSION  OF  THE  HIGH-SCHOOL  COURSE 

In  a  number  of  American  cities  modern-language  in- 
struction, mainly  German,  has  already  been  introduced  in 
the  primary1  grades  of  the  public  schools,  and  the  propri- 
ety and  value  of  such  instruction  have  been  warmly  de- 
bated in  the  newspapers  and  in  local  educational  circles. 
On  the  one  hand,  it  is  urged  that  in  any  community  where 
Germans  preponderate  or  constitute  even  a  large  minority 
of  the  taxpayers  they  have  a  right  to  demand  that  the 
German  language  be  taught  in  the  public  schools.  The 
reply  is  made  that  the  primary  schools  of  the  United  States 
have  an  important  function  to  perform  in  preparing  chil- 
dren for  life  and  citizenship  in  an  English-speaking  coun- 
try, and  that  this  mission  will  best  be  performed  if  the 
English  language  and  no  other  is  made  the  subject  and  the 
medium  of  instruction.  To  this  it  is  rejoined  that  the  learn- 
ing of  a  foreign  language  in  childhood  need  not  prejudice 
the  learning  of  English  or  of  any  other  important  subject, 
that  the  rudiments  are  quickly  and  easily  acquired,  and  that 
the  early  beginning  is  in  accordance  with  sound  pedagogi- 
cal principles.  This  line  of  assertion,  in  turn,  is  met  with 
the  reply  that  the  primary  schools  have  all  they  can  do  in 
teaching  the  subjects  that  are  of  obvious  and  undeniable 
use  to  everybody,  and  that  the  smattering  of  a  foreign 


•We  use  the  word  "primary"  to  denote  in  a  general  way  all 
grades  below  the  high  school. 


- 

THE  MODERN   LANGUAGE  ASSOCIATION  OF  AMERICA        37 

language  which  they  can  impart  serves  no  educational 
purpose  and  is  of  no  practical  value  in  life. 

When  the  issue  is  thus  stated  one  sees  at  once  that  there 
is  a  measure  of  soundness  in  all  these  contentions.  The 
committee  feel  that  it  would  be  futile  to  attempt  here  an 
answer  to  the  question  whether  it  is  or  is  not  desirable,  in 
the  abstract,  that  a  foreign  language  be  taught  in  the  pri- 
mary grades  of  our  public  schools.  The  question  in  its 
politico-social  bearings  is  a  very  large  one,  but  it  is  a  ques- 
tion which  every  community  must  and  will  decide  for  itself 
in  view  of  local  conditions,  and  the  wisdom  of  its  decision 
must  abide  the  test  of  experience.  We  believe,  however, 
that  experience  is  already  sufficient  to  enable  us  to  formu- 
late certain  general  principles  which  should  always  be  kept 
in  view  in  the  practical  management  of  the  matter  under 
consideration. 

In  the  first  place,  if  a  foreign  language  is  taken  up  in 
the  primary  grades,  it  should  always  be  as  an  optional 
study.  This  point  seems  to  require  no  argument.  The 
value  of  the  study  is  at  best  so  uncertain,  so  dependent 
upon  circumstances  of  one  kind  or  another,  that  the  work 
should  not  be  made  obligatory  for  anyone. 

In  the  second  place,  it  is  not  worth  while,  as  a  rule,  that 
the  study  of  a  foreign  language  be  taken  up  in  the  primary 
grades  unless  the  beginner  has  at  least  a  prospect  and  an 
intention  of  going  on  through  the  secondary  school.  The 
reason  for  this  opinion  is  that  what  can  be  acquired  of  a 
modern  language  in  the  primary  grades,  even  with  the 
best  of  teaching  and  under  the  most  favorable  conditions, 
is  good  for  nothing  except  as  a  foundation.  For  while  it 
is  true  that  children  learn  quickly  and  easily  the  rudiments 
of  "  conversation  "  in  a  foreign  tongue,  it  is  also  true  that 

46712 


38  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  TWELVE  OF 

they  forget  them  no  less  quickly  and  easily.  The  children 
of  parents  who  speak  German  at  home  and  expect  to  speak 
it  more  or  less  all  their  lives,  may  be  taught  in  the  primary 
school  to  use  the  language  a  little  more  correctly;  but  if 
they  leave  school  at  the  age  of  twelve  or  fourteen,  they  in- 
evitably drop  back  into  the  speech  habits  of  those  with 
whom  they  associate,  and  their  school  training  thus  be- 
comes, so  far  as  the  German  language  is  concerned,  a 
reminiscence  of  time  wasted.  The  children  of  parents 
who  speak  English  at  home  may  get  a  smattering  of  Ger- 
man at  school;  but  if  they  leave  school  at  the  age  of 
twelve  or  fourteen  they  soon  forget  all  they  have  learned. 

In  the  third  place,  if  a  foreign  language  is  taught  in 
the  primary  grades,  it  should  be  by  teachers  who  handle 
the  language  easily  and  idiomatically.  Classes  should  be 
as  small  as  possible  and  there  should  be  at  least  one  exer- 
cise on  every  school  day.  .  Infrequent  lessons  in  large 
classes  amount  to  nothing.  It  is  important  that  the 
teacher  know  his  pupils  intimately  and  be  able  to  adapt  his 
instruction  to  their  individual  needs.  The  general  aim 
should  be  to  familiarize  the  learner  with  the  vocabulary 
and  phraseology  of  the  spoken  language  and  to  teach  him 
to  express  himself  readily  and  correctly  in  easy  sentences. 
The  free  use  of  objects  and  pictures  is  to  be  recommended. 

In  what  has  just  been  said  we  have  had  in  view  the 
usual  arrangement  of  work,  in  accordance  with  which  the 
secondary  or  high  school  is  supposed  to  begin  with  the 
ninth  grade  (the  average  pupil  being  then  about  fourteen 
years  old)  and  to  extend  over  a  period  of  four  years. 
Grades  below  the  ninth  we  have  classed  as  primary. 
But  while  this  is  still  the  typical  arrangement  for  the 
country  at  large,  school-men  have  here  and  there  length- 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  ASSOCIATION  OF  AMERICA        39 

ened  the  high  school  by  extending  it  downward ;  in  other 
words,  by  making  provision  that  some  of  the  solid  disci- 
plinary studies  of  the  secondary  period  shall  begin  in  the 
seventh  or  eighth  grade.  There  appears  to  be  strong 
argument  in  favor  of  this  plan.  It  is  urged  by  thoughtful 
school-men  that  our  American  high  school  has  become 
congested ;  that  the  increased  requirements  of  the  colleges 
and  the  pressing  demands  of  new  subjects  for  "  recogni- 
tion "  have  given  to  the  secondary  school  more  work  than 
it  can  do  thoroughly  in  the  traditional  allotment  of  time. 
When,  as  sometimes  happens,  the  colleges  are  blamed  for 
this  state  of  affairs  and  it  is  suggested  that  they  reduce 
their  requirements  for  admission,  they  are  able  to  reply 
with  much  force  that  present  requirements,  even  where 
they  are  highest,  are  none  too  high  unless  we  are  willing 
to  fall  far  below  the  standard  of  the  Old  World.  The 
average  graduate  of  an  American  high  school  is  of  about 
the  same  age  as  the  average  graduate  of  a  German  gym- 
nasium, but  the  latter  is  further  along  in  his  studies  and 
better  prepared  for  higher  work.  We  have  therefore  to 
consider  the  problem  of  strengthening  the  preparatory 
course  while  recognizing  that  the  ordinary  four-year  cur- 
riculum can  bear  no  further  burdens  and  should,  if  any- 
thing, be  simplified.  Of  this  problem  the  obvious  solution 
is  to  begin  the  proper  work  of  the  high  school  at  an  earlier 
date.  Instead  of  dividing  our  educational  years  into  eight 
primary,  four  secondary,  and  seven  or  eight  higher,  we 
should  divide  them  into  six  primary,  six  secondary,  and 
six  higher. 

It  is  probable  then  that  the  six-year  high-school  course 
will  meet  with  increasing  favor,  for  the  idea  is  a  good  one. 
At  the  same  time  we  can  not  expect  that  the  now  usual 


4O  REPORT   OF   THE    COMMITTEE   OF   TWELVE   OF 

organization  of  school  work  will  be  changed  immediately 
or  even  rapidly,  and  for  this  reason  the  model  courses  to 
be  described  below  have  been  drawn  up  primarily  with 
reference  to  existing  conditions.  Our  principal  object  in 
touching  here  upon  the  subject  of  the  six-year  secondary 
curriculum  was  to  prepare  the  way  for  an  expression  of  the 
opinion  that,  where  such  extended  courses  are  provided, 
a  modern  language  can  be  very  advantageously  begun  in 
the  seventh  grade. 

Whether  Latin  or  a  modern  language  should  come  first 
in  a  well-ordered  course  of  study  is  a  question  upon  which 
teachers  differ.  It  is  one  of  the  questions  upon  which,  in 
the  existing  state  of  psychological  and  pedagogical  science, 
it  is  just  as  well  not  to  dogmatize.  In  fixing  the  order  of 
studies  in  any  school  course,  practical  considerations  of 
one  kind  or  another  will  often  outweigh  general  argu- 
ment. Probably  the  sanest  view  of  the  matter  is  that  it 
does  not  make  very  much  difference  whether  Latin  or  a 
modern  language  precedes,  if  only  the  elementary  instruc- 
tion in  either  case  be  rightly  adapted  to  the  learner's  age 
and  mental  condition.  It  is  often  urged  that  the  discipline 
afforded  by  the  study  of  Latin  makes  the  subsequent  learn- 
ing of  a  modern  language  easier.  This  is  true,  but  the 
converse  is  no  less  true.  In  beginning  the  serious  study 
of  any  foreign  language  there  are  certain  mental  habits  to 
be  formed,  certain  faculties  to  be  called  into  play  and  ex- 
ercised. The  pupil  must  learn  how  to  study.  He  must 
become  familiar  with  strange  forms,  and  with  their  equiva- 
lent in  his  own  tongue.  He  must  learn  what  idiom  means 
and  how  to  translate ;  must  learn  to  observe,  compare,  and 
think.  For  the  purpose  of  this  elementary  discipline  one 
language  is  as  good  as  another,  if  only  the  teaching  be  in- 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  ASSOCIATION  OF  AMERICA       4! 

telligent;  and  the  discipline  of  the  first  linguistic  study 
makes  the  second  easier.  In  general,  it  is  safe  to  assert 
that  the  average  boy  or  girl  of  twelve  will  take  more 
kindly  to  French  or  German  than  to  Latin.  The  modem 
language  is  easier  and  more  interesting.  It  seems  more 
real  and  practical.  Progress  is  more  rapid.  The  value  of 
the  Latin  has  to  be  taken  on  trust,  that  of  the  modern  lan- 
guage is  more  obvious  to  the  juvenile  mind.  For  children 
of  twelve  the  Latin  grammar  is  a  very  severe  study.  It 
means  usually  for  many  months  little  more  than  a  load- 
ing of  the  memory  with  paradigms,  a  blind  investment  of 
labor  for  the  sake  of  a  mysterious  future  profit  which  the 
learner  can  not  comprehend.  The  elementary  reading 
matter  is  usually  dull  stuff,  devised  to  illustrate  grammar. 
Up  through  Caesar's  Commentaries  there  is  almost  nothing 
to  touch  the  feeling,  to  feed  the  imagination,  or  to  suggest 
a  real  connection  with  the  pupil's  own  life.  It  is  all  a 
grind ;  in  its  time  and  place,  to  be  sure,  a  very  useful  grind. 
We  believe  in  it  heartily.  But  the  question  is  whether  for 
children  of  twelve  it  is  not  best  to  break  the  force  of  the 
initial  impact  wjth  Latin  by  using  a  modern  language  as  a 
buffer. 

It  may  also  be  remarked,  finally,  that  one  who  wishes  to 
acquire  a  modern  language  thoroughly  will  always  do  well 
to  begin  in  childhood.  The  later  period  of  youth  is  dis- 
tinctly a  bad  time  to  begin.  In  childhood  the  organs  of 
speech  are  still  in  a  plastic  condition.  Good  habits  are 
easily  formed;  bad  habits  more  easily  corrected.  The 
mind  acts  more  naively,  and  the  memory  is  tenacious  of 
whatever  interests.  Forms  of  expression  are  readily 
mastered  as  simple  facts.  Later  in  life,  in  proportion  as 
the  mind  grows  stronger,  it  also  grows  more  rigid.  The 


42  REPORT   OF   THE   COMMITTEE   OF   TWELVE   OF 

habit  of  analyzing  and  reasoning  interferes  more  or  less 
with  the  natural  receptivity  of  the  child.  The  fixation  of 
speech  habits  in  the  mother  tongue  makes  it  increasingly 
difficult  to  acquire  even  a  moderately  good  pronunciation, 
and  perfection  is  usually  out  of  the  question. 

SECTION  VI 

PROPOSAL  OF  THREE  NATIONAL  GRADES  OF  PREPARATORY 
INSTRUCTION  IN  THE  MODERN  LANGUAGES 

Thus  far  this  report  has  not  dealt  specifically  with  re- 
quirements for  admission  to  college.  In  accordance  with 
the  idea  embodied  in  the  resolution  referred  to  in  Section 
I,  we  have  approached  our  subject  from  the  point  of  view 
of  the  secondary  schools.  We  have  endeavored  to  state 
and  explain  the  principles  which  should  be  kept  in  view  in 
order  to  render  our  school  work  in  French  and  German 
as  valuable  as  possible  to  the  learner.  We  have  recog- 
nized that  the  secondary  school  does  not  exist  solely  or 
even  mainly  for  the  sake  of  its  preparatory  function ;  and 
what  we  have  said  would  be  in  the  main  true,  and  we  hope 
valuable,  even  if  there  were  no  colleges.  Nevertheless  the 
preparatory  function  of  the  secondary  school  is  obviously 
of  very  great  importance.  In  practice  secondary  courses 
are  shaped  quite  largely  with  reference  to  college  require- 
ments. The  school  naturally  looks  to  the  college  as  a  reg- 
ulative influence.  It  turns  to  the  college  catalogue,  learns 
what  must  be  done  to  prepare  its  pupils  for  admission,  and 
concludes,  not  unnaturally,  that  this  is  about  what  ought 
to  be  done  from  an  educational  point  of  view.  In  the  ab- 
sence of  any  central  control  of  education  in  the  United 
States  this  regulative  influence  of  the  college  is  the  most 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  ASSOCIATION  OF  AMERICA       43 

potent  agency  at  our  command  for  creating  and  maintain- 
ing a  high  standard  of  secondary  teaching.  We  come, 
then,  to  the  subject  of  secondary  instruction  as  related  to 
college  requirements. 

For  the  purpose  of  simplifying  the  relation  between  the 
colleges  and  the  secondary  schools  and  for  the  purpose  of 
securing  greater  efficiency  and  greater  uniformity  in  the 
work  of  the  schools  it  is  hereby  proposed  that  there  be 
recognized,  for  the  country  at  large,  three  grades  of  pre- 
paratory instruction  in  French  and  German,  to  be  known 
as  the  elementary,  the  intermediate,  and  the  advanced,  and 
that  the  colleges  be  invited  to  adopt  the  practice  of  stating 
their  requirements  in  terms  of  the  national  grades. 

Explanatory. — The  proposed  three  grades  are  designed 
to  correspond  normally  to  courses  of  two,  three,  and  four 
years,  respectively,  the  work  being  supposed  to  begin  in 
the  first  year  of  a  four-year  high-school  course,  and  to  pro- 
ceed at  the  uniform  rate  of  four  recitations  a  week.  The 
elementary  course  is  designed  to  furnish  the  minimum  of 
preparation  required  by  a  number  of  colleges  in  addition 
to  the  Latin  or  Greek  of  the  classical  preparatory  course. 
The  intermediate  course  is  designed  to  furnish  the  prepa- 
ration required  by  many  colleges  which  permit  the  sub- 
stitution of  a  modern  language  for  Greek.  The  advanced 
course  is  designed  to  furnish  the  highest  grade  of  prepara- 
tion of  which  the  secondary  school  will  ordinarily  be  ca- 
pable in  a  four-year  course. 

With  respect  to  the  time  required,  in  years  and  in  hours 
per  week,  for  the  satisfactory  completion  of  the  work  to  be 
outlined  below,  it  should  be  said  that  the  committee  has  no 
thought  of  imposing  upon  the  schools  an  inflexible  pro- 
gramme. Teachers  will  continue  to  make  their  pro* 


44  REPORT   OF   THE   COMMITTEE   OF   TWELVE   OF 

grammes  in  accordance  with  their  own  judgment  and  con- 
venience. The  rapidity  with  which  the  proposed  work 
can  be  done  will,  of  course,  vary  greatly  in  different 
schools,  with  the  age  and  aptitude  of  pupils,  the  size  of 
classes,  the  efficiency  of  teaching,  and  according  as  the  be- 
ginner of  French  or  German  has  or  has  not  studied  Latin. 
It  makes  no  small  difference  whether  the  modern  language 
is  begun  in  the  first  year  or  in  the  third  year  of  the  high- 
school  course.  In  attempting  to  draw  up  model  courses, 
however,  the  committee  obviously  had  to  make  some  defi- 
nite assumption  with  regard  to  the  time  of  beginning  and 
the  number  of  recitations  per  week.  It  was  also  necessary 
to  provide  for  the  case  of  the  work  beginning  in  the  first 
year,  since  many  of  our  best  schools  already  have  four-year 
courses  in  German  or  French,  or  both.  It  is  clearly  de- 
sirable that  such  courses  be  made  as  good  as  possible,  and 
that  they  have  a  recognized  place  and  value  in  our  general 
scheme  of  requirements  for  admission  to  college. 

With  regard  to  the  four  recitations  per  week  let  it  be 
observed  that  that  number  has  been  made  the  basis  of  our 
calculations,  not  because  the  committee  prefer  it  to  five,  or 
wish  to  recommend  it  to  the  schools  instead  of  five,  but  be- 
cause it  is  believed  to  be  the  smallest  number  that  will  per- 
mit the  proper  completion  of  the  work  proposed,  if  the 
work  begins  in  the  first  year.  Where  a  modern  language 
is  begun  in  the  third  year  of  a  high  school,  it  may  be  pos- 
sible to  complete  the  intermediate  course  in  two  years  at 
the  rate  of  five  recitations  a  week,  and  the  elementary 
course  in  proportionately  less  time.  Where  French  is 
taken  up  in  the  last  year  of  the  classical  preparatory 
course,  it  may  be  possible  sometimes  to  meet  the  ele- 
mentary requirement  in  one  year  at  the  rate  of  five  recita- 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  ASSOCIATION  OF  AMERICA        45 

tions  a  week.  But  this  will  almost  never  be  possible  in 
the  case  of  German,  and  in  general  the  committee  do  not 
recommend  one  year  courses.  The  attempt  to  meet  the 
elementary  requirement  in  one  year  will  result  usually  in 
a  cramming  process  with  neglect  of  that  thorough  drill 
upon  the  rudiments  which  is  necessary  for  a  good  founda- 
tion. 

In  drawing  up  model  courses  the  committee  has  had  in 
view  the  needs  and  the  conditions  of  the  United  States  at 
large.1  The  work  of  the  subcommittee  charged  with  the 
matter  was  first  submitted  for  criticism  and  suggestions 
to  some  two  hundred  secondary  teachers  of  known  ability 
and  experience.  It  was  then  carefully  revised  in  the  light 
of  the  information  and  opinions  gathered,  and  finally  ran 
the  gauntlet  of  thorough  discussion  in  the  committee  of 
twelve.  It  is  believed  to  represent  the  best  intelligence 
of  the  country ;  to  set  a  standard  which  is  high,  but  not  too 


1  In  the  spring  of  1896  representatives  of  Harvard,  Yale,  Prince- 
ton, Columbia,  Cornell,  and  the  University  of  Pennsylvania  met  in 
New  York  and,  in  conference  with  representatives  of  a  number 
of  prominent  Eastern  preparatory  schools,  agreed  upon  a  scheme 
of  uniform  requirements  which  has  since  been  accepted  by  the 
institutions  concerned.  The  modern-language  conference  framed 
an  elementary  and  an  advanced  requirement  in  French  and  in 
German.  The  elementary  requirement  of  the  New  York  confer- 
ence is  substantially  the  same  as  that  proposed  by  this  committee, 
and  their  advanced  requirement  is  nearly  identical  with  our  inter- 
mediate requirement.  Slight  differences  appear  in  phraseology,  in 
estimates  of  time  required,  and  in  the  number  of  pages  suggested 
for  reading.  But  these  differences  are  insignificant.  It  is  be- 
lieved therefore  that  the  six  prominent  institutions  which  have 
already  made  so  good  a  beginning  in  the  unification  of  entrance 
requirements  will  have  no  difficulty  in  adapting  their  statements 
to  the  scheme  which  is  here  proposed  for  the  country  at  large. 


46  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  TWELVE  OF 

high,  and  to  be  throughout  entirely  practicable.  Teach- 
ers who  do  not  find  their  own  ideas  perfectly  expressed 
by  the  scheme  will  please  remember  that  the  committee  had 
to  find  its  way  among  a  multitude  of  counselors. 

SECTION  VII 

THE  ELEMENTARY  COURSE  IN  GERMAN 
(a)  THE  AIM  OF  THE  INSTRUCTION 

At  the  end  of  the  elementary  course  in  German  the  pupil 
should  be  able  to  read  at  sight,  and  to  translate,  if  called 
upon,  by  way  of  proving  his  ability  to  read,  a  passage  of 
very  easy  dialogue  or  narrative  prose,  help  being  given 
upon  unusual  words  and  constructions;  to  put  into  Ger- 
man short  English  sentences  taken  from  the  language 
of  every-day  life  or  based  upon  the  text  given  for  transla- 
tion, and  to  answer  questions  upon  the  rudiments  of  the 
grammar  as  defined  below. 

(&)  THE  WORK  TO  BE  DONE 

During  the  first  year  the  work  should  comprise: 
(i)  Careful  drill  upon  pronunciation;  (2)  the  memorizing 
and  frequent  repetition  of  easy  colloquial  sentences;  £3) 
drill  upon  the  rudiments  of  grammar,  that  is,  upon  the  in- 
flection of  the  articles,  of  such  nouns  as  belong  to  the 
language  of  every-day  life,  of  adjectives,  pronouns,  weak 
verbs,  and  the  more  usual  strong  verbs,  also  upon  the  use 
of  the  more  common  prepositions,  the  simpler  uses  of  the 
modal  auxiliaries,  and  the  elementary  rules  of  syntax  and 
word  order;  (4)  abundant  easy  exercises  designed  not 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  ASSOCIATION  OF  AMERICA       47 

only  to  fix  in  mind  the  forms  and  principles  of  grammar, 
but  also  to  cultivate  readiness  in  the  reproduction  of  nat- 
ural forms  of  expression;  (5)  the  reading  of  from  75  to 
100  pages  of  graduated  texts  from  a  reader,  with  constant 
practice  in  translating  into  German  easy  variations  upon 
sentences  selected  from  the  reading  lesson  (the  teacher 
giving  the  English),  and  in  the  reproduction  from  mem- 
ory of  sentences  previously  read. 

During  the  second  year  the  work  should  comprise :  ( I ) 
The  reading  of  from  150  to  200  pages  of  literature  in  the 
form  of  easy  stories  and  plays;  (2)  accompanying  prac- 
tice, as  before,  in  the  translation  into  German  of  easy  varia- 
tions upon  the  matter  read,  and  also  in  the  off-hand 
reproduction,  sometimes  orally  and  sometimes  in  writing, 
of  the  substance  of  short  and  easy  selected  passages;  (3) 
continued  drill  upon  the  rudiments  of  the  grammar,  di- 
rected to  the  ends  of  enabling  the  pupil,  first,  to  use  his 
knowledge  with  facility  in  the  formation  of  sentences,  and, 
secondly,  to  state  his  knowledge  correctly  in  the  technical 
language  of  grammar. 

(c)    SUGGESTIONS  TO  THE  TEACHER 

The  following  paragraphs  are  submitted  in  the  interest 
of  good  teaching,  and  not  in  the  interest  of  the  most  ex- 
peditious preparation  for  college.  It  is  well  known  that 
a  capable  boy  or  girl  can  be  crammed  for  a  college  exam- 
ination in  any  subject  in  much  less  time  than  a  proper 
training  in  the  subject  would  require.  Here,  however, 
we  are  concerned  with  the  proper  training.  The  college 
entrance  examination  is  admittedly  an  imperfect  test  of 
attainment  in  a  modern  language.  Where  candidates  are 
numerous  and  the  time  limited,  the  examination  is  neces- 


48  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  TWELVE  OF 

sarily  in  writing;  and  then  the  only  available  test  of  the 
ability  to  read  is  the  ability  to  translate,  while  pronuncia- 
tion and  readiness  of  speech  are  not  tested  at  all.  It  is 
evident,  then,  that  a  good  symmetrical  training  in  the  sec- 
ondary school  must  keep  in  view  more  things  than  are 
likely  to  be  "  required  "  of  the  candidate  at  his  examination 
for  admission  to  college.  In  what  follows  we  shall  take  up 
the  more  important  points  that  are  involved  in  the  teach- 
ing of  beginners  and  make  some  practical  suggestions — • 
suggestions  that  are  by  no  means  intended  to  prescribe  a 
routine,  but  rather  to  state  and  explain  guiding  principles, 
(i)  Pronunciation. — It  is  hardly  necessary  to  say  that 
the  first  matter  of  importance  for  the  beginner  is  the  learn- 
ing of  a  good  pronunciation.  Drill  upon  the  subject 
should  be  kept  up  steadily  and  inexorably  until  right  habits 
are  firmly  fixed ;  because  wrong  habits  formed  at  the  outset 
are  very  persistent  and  very  difficult  to  correct.  In  at- 
tempting to  imitate  his  teacher's  utterance  of  the  strange 
German  sounds  the  learner  will  at  first  neither  hear  nor 
reproduce  correctly,  but  will  utter  rough  approximations 
of  his  own.  It  is  necesssary  to  train  both  his  ear  and  his 
vocal  organs.  In  doing  this  most  teachers  rely  only  upon 
oft-repeated  imitations  of  their  own  pronunciation;  and 
this  is  the  best  reliance,  always  supposing  that  the  model 
itself  be  good.  What  usually  happens,  however,  is  that 
teachers  cease  or  slacken  their  drill  too  soon.  They  find 
it  dull  business.  After  correcting  some  faulty  utterance  a 
score  or  two  of  times,  they  conclude  that  the  result  ob- 
tained will  "  do,"  that  it  is  the  best  obtainable,  that 
practice  will  make  perfect — in  the  future.  But  the  learner, 
being  no  longer  regularly  brought  to  book  for  his  faults, 
perpetuates  them,  and  makes  no  further  progress  except  to 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  ASSOCIATION  OF  AMERICA       49 

pronounce  badly  with  greater  facility.  In  this  way  is  ac- 
quired the  slovenly  pronunciation  with  which  too  many 
leave  school. 

The  opinion  is  sometimes  expressed  that  it  is  not  worth 
while  to  take  great  pains  in  the  teaching  of  pronunciation, 
since  perfection  is  out  of  the  question.  The  argument  is 
that  American  youth  will  not  learn  in  school,  however  they 
may  be  taught,  to  pronounce  German  as  Germans  pro- 
nounce it;  and  that  since  they  will  speak  badly  anyway, 
the  question  of  more  or  less  can  not  greatly  matter.  But 
this  is  not  the  right  attitude.  For  although  one  who  is  not 
a  German  will  very  rarely  learn  after  childhood  to  use  the 
organs  of  speech  precisely  as  Germans  use  them,  so  that 
his  pronunciation  will  ring  absolutely  true,  still  any  boy  or 
girl  of  average  aptitude  may  by  careful  attention  to  the 
subject  acquire  a  pronunciation  so  good  that  it  will  be 
pleasing  rather  than  displeasing  to  a  cultivated  German 
ear;  just  as  in  the  case  of  Germans  learning  English,  that 
which  is  called  the  foreign  "  accent "  may  be  reduced  to 
such  minute  proportions  that  it  does  not  offend,  though  it 
is  noticeable.  Now  this  is  a  result  worth  working  for; 
but  it  can  only  be  obtained  when  the  teacher  is  interested 
in  pronunciation  and  well-informed  with  regard  to  it. 
And  right  here  comes  in  the  great  value  of  a  knowledge 
of  phonetics.  Without  such  knowledge  the  teacher's  only 
resource  is  the  imitation  of  himself  as  model ;  his  own 
personal  habits  of  utterance  become  the  standard  of  the 
class.  But  his  habits  may  not  be  the  best.  If  an  American, 
he  may  have  received  a  faulty  training;  if  a  German,  he 
may  have  dialectic  peculiarities  which  should  not  be  taught 
to  a  class.  One  who  knows  just  how  the  German  sounds 
are  produced,  and  how  they  differ  from  the  English  sounds 


5O  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  TWELVE  OF 

with  which  they  are  most  apt  to  be  confounded,  has  a 
great  advantage  in  teaching  pronunciation.  If  he  hears  a 
faulty  utterance  he  will  know  what  is  the  matter  and  can 
correct  it  in  the  most  effective  way.  If  he -knows  some- 
thing of  German  dialects,  of  provincial  or  local  peculiari- 
ties of  pronunciation,  of  the  nature  and  claims  of  the  so- 
called  standard  pronunciation,  he  will  know  what  "  cor- 
rectness "  means  and  will  be  able  to  teach  more  intelli- 
gently. And,  what  is  most  important  of  all,  for  one  who 
has  a  scientific  interest  in  pronunciation,  the  class-room 
drill  upon  the  subject  will  not  be  a  dull  mechanical  routine, 
but  a  highly  interesting  employment.  He  will  himself 
learn  much  incidentally,  and  will  make  his  teaching  of 
pronunciation  useful  to  his  pupils,  not  only  for  German, 
but  also  for  English. 

It  is  therefore  very  much  to  be  desired  that  teachers  of 
German  in  the  secondary  schools  be  qualified  to  deal  scien- 
tifically with  the  subject  of  pronunciation.  For  this 
purpose  it  is  not  at  all  necessary  that  they  be  accomplished 
phoneticians.  A  very  rudimentary  knowledge  of  general 
phonetics  will  suffice.  Of  greater  importance  is  it  to  have 
at  hand  and  to  have  carefully  studied  a  good  treatment  of 
the  special  problems  of  German-English  phonetics.1 


1  Such  a  treatment  can  "be  found  in  Hempl's  German  Orthogra- 
phy and  Phonology,  Boston,  1879,  The  second  "  book  "  of  Pro- 
fessor Hempl's  work  gives,  in  chapter  i,  a  sufficient  introduction 
to  general  phonetics,  with  bibliography  on  p.  61 ;  then,  in  chapter 
2,  a  scientific  description  of  German  speech  sounds.  Chapter  3 
discusses  such  topics  as  "  A  standard  of  pronunciation,"  "  Stage 
pronunciation,"  "The  best  German,"  "The  difference  between 
German  and  English  pronunciation,"  and,  very  fully,  "  The  values 
of  the  letters."  Bibliography,  on  p.  107.  From  the  works  there 
mentioned  we  select,  as  likely  to  be  most  useful  to  the  teacher 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  ASSOCIATION  OF  AMERICA        51 

(2)  The  memorising  of  colloquial  sentences. — If  there 
is  any  point  upon  which  progressive  teachers  of  living  lan- 
guages the  world  over  have  lately  been  coming  to  an 
agreement,  it  is  that  in  any  course  of  study  making  the 
slightest  pretension  to  thoroughness  the  proper  starting 

I  point  in  teaching  is  the  vocabulary  and  phraseology  of  the 
language  as  represented  in  its  every-day  forms  of  expres- 
sion. It  is  of  course  possible  to  learn  to  read  a  language 
with  some  facility  and  still  not  be  able  to  utter  a  sentence 
in  it  intelligently  or  to  understand  a  sentence  uttered  by 
another;  in  short,  without  acquiring  any  feeling  for  the 
language  in  its  characteristic  modes  of  expression. 
Scholars  and  men  of  science  who  find  it  necessary  in  their 
work  to  read  a  number  of  foreign  languages  can  very 
quickly,  by  the  aid  of  grammar,  dictionary,  and  transla- 
tion, reach  a  point  at  which  they  can  "  make  out  the  sense  " 
or  "  get  the  drift"  of  an  article  or  a  pamphlet.  But  this 
is  not  learning  the  language  any  more  than  "  picking  up  " 
a  few  tunes  on  the  piano  is  learning  music.  Such  reading, 
though  better  than  nothing  and  useful  for  certain  pur- 
poses, is  unsatisfactory.  In  the  field  of  belles-lettres, 
where  so  much  depends  upon  style,  upon  niceties  of  ex- 
pression, and  the  subtle  association  of  ideas,  it  is  extremely 

(aside  from  Professor  Hempl's  own  book)  :  Grandgent's  German 
and  English  Sounds,  Boston,  1892;  Brandt's  German  Grammar 
(second  part),  Boston,  1888;  Victor's  German  Pronunciation,  4th 
ed.,  1890  (Lemcke  &  Biichner,  812  Broadway,  New  York,  Ameri- 
can agei'*s)  ;  also  Victor's  German  essays,  Die  Aussprache  des 
Schriftdeutschen,  1890,  and  Wie  ist  die  Aussprache  des  Deutschen 
zu  lehren?  1893.  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  say  that  the  most  widely 
used  school  grammars  deal  very  briefly  and  superficially  with  the 
subject  of  pronunciation  and  are  an  insufficient  reliance,  even  when 
free  from  positive  error. 


52  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  TWELVE  OF 

unsatisfactory.  The  school,  in  dealing  with  languages  so 
important  as  German  and  French,  should  aim  at  something 
better.  It  should  aim  to  be  thorough ;  to  begin  in  the  best 
way  and  lay  a  good  foundation. 

For  literary  appreciation — that  is,  for  reading  of  the 
most  profitable  kind — one  needs  before  all  things  a  sensi- 
tive feeling  for  the  language.  One  needs  the  sense  of  be- 
ing at  home  in  it.  In  teaching,  this  principle  should  be 
recognized  from  the  outset.  The  learner's  knowledge  is 
to  be  made  second  nature.  His  faculties  and  organs  must 
be  taught  to  respond  instantly  and  naturally  to  the  foreign 
symbols  whether  they  are  seen  or  heard.  Idea  and  form 
of  expression  must  become  so  intimately  associated  that 
the  one  suggests  the  other  without  any  intervening  pro- 
cess of  ratiocination.  To  accomplish  this,  there  is  no  kind 
of  drill  so  good  as  the  memorizing  and  frequent  repetition 
of  easy  colloquial  sentences.  Such  sentences  can  be  given 
out  and  learned  without  any  attempt  at  grammatical  an- 
alysis and  quite  in  advance  of  the  pupil's  grammatical 
knowledge.  To  know  the  meaning  of  "  es  thut  mir  leid  " 
and  be  able  to  handle  the  sentence  appropriately,  it  is  not 
at  all  necessary  that  one  be  able  to  parse  a  single  one  of 
the  w.ords.  It  is  to  be  borne  in  mind  that  psychologically 
the  unit  of  speech  is  the  sentence  or  the  phrase,  and  not 
the  individual  vocable.  Thoughtful  teachers  sometimes 
object  to  this  form  of  drill  on  the  ground  that  it  is  mere 
memory  work,  that  it  does  not  teach  the  pupil  to  think  or 
to  reason.  This,  however,  is  not  a  valid  objection.  Such 
drill  does  much  more  than  to  load  the  memory.  It  de- 
velopes  aptitude  by  making  psychological  reactions  instan- 
taneous; in  short,  by  creating  Sprachgefuhl.  Its  value 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  ASSOCIATION  OF  AMERICA        53 

has  some  analogy  to  that  of  the  finger-exercises  of  the  in- 
cipient pianist. 

It  is  obviously  important  that  what  is  given  out  to  be 
learned  in  this  way  should  consist  of  nothing  but  natural, 
oft-recurring  forms  of  expression.  The  pupil  is  to  learn 
how  Germans  actually  say  things,  and  not  how  they  might 
possibly  say  something  which  no  one  would  ever  have  oc- 
casion to  say  outside  the  class  room.  The  ideal  condition 
is,  of  course,  that  the  teacher  have  such  a  command  of 
colloquial  idiom  that  he  will  be  able  to  furnish  the  neces- 
sary materials  from  the  resources  of  his  own  knowledge. 
It  will  then  be  best  that  the  pupil's  repetitions  be  elicited 
by  questions  addressed  to  him  in  German ;  in  other  words, 
that  the  drill  take  the  form  of  short  dialogues  without  use 
of  English.  But,  as  we  have  already  intimated,  the 
teacher  who  does  not  command  the  language  should  not 
attempt  this,  but  follow  a  book  or  note  down  suitable 
sentences  from  his  reading  of  realistic  stories  and  plays. 
Such  sentences  may  then  be  given  out  to  be  learned  and 
repeated  frequently,  the  teacher  giving  the  thought  in 
English. ' 


1  For  reasons  sufficiently  obvious  the  committee  does  not  under- 
take to  recommend  particular  American  text-books  for  class  use. 
There  are  a  number  of  publications  from  which  material  more  or 
less  suitable  can  be  culled.  The  test  in  choosing  is  whether  a  sen- 
tence represents  (i)  a  natural  and  (2)  a  usual  or  oft-recurriag 
form  of  expression.  A  scientific  manual  of  spoken  German,  on  the 
general  lines  perhaps  of  Sweet's  Elementarbuch  des  gesprochenen 
Englisch,  is  a  desiderandum.  Worthy  of  recommendation  for 
its  thorough  trustworthiness  in  respect  of  idiom,  and  equally  good 
for  German  and  French,  is  the  German  edition  of  Storm's  Dia- 
logues franc.ais,  i.  e.  Franzosische  Sprechiibungen,  Leipzig,  1888. 


54  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  TWELVE  OF 

This  is  perhaps  an  appropriate  place  to  say  a  word  upon 
the  subject  of  memorizing  poetry,  a  kind  of  drill  which 
is  highly  thought  of  and  largely  practised  by  many  teach- 
ers. The  argument  in  its  favor  generally  takes  some  such 
form  as  this:  Boys  and  girls  are  apt  to  memorize  easily, 
and  they  must  memorize  something;  then  why  not  have 
them  memorize  gems  of  poetry  and  great  thoughts  of 
great  writers  rather  than  the  banalities  of  ordinary  dis- 
course? But  this  argument  is  fallacious  The  object  of 
the  drill  in  colloquial  German  is,  as  we  have  already  re- 
marked, not  to  load  the  memory  with  things  supposed 
to  be  highly  valuable  in  themselves,  but  to  create  an  in- 
stinctive feeling  for  the  language  in  its  usual  and  natural 
modes  of  expression.  Now  poetry,  as  the  language  of 
emotion,  is  a  more  or  less  artificial — often  a  highly  artificial 
— form  of  expression,  and  it  is  better  that  the  natural  be- 
come lodged  in  the  mind  first.  The  beginner  who  has 
learned  to  recite  "  Sah  ein  Knob  ein  Roslein  stehn.  Roslein 
auf  der  Heiden,"  is  hardly  in  a  better,  but  rather  in  a 
worse,  position  for  learning  how  a  German  would  ordi- 
narily express  that  idea.  It  may  further  be  remarked  that 
in  simply  hearing  recitations  of  poetry  in  the  class  room 
the  teacher  can  be  of  little  use  except  to  see  that  his  pupils 
have  done  their  task,  which  is,  to  make  the  best  of  it,  one 
of  his  lowest  functions ;  to  correct  mistakes  of  pronuncia- 
tion, and  to  give  points  in  elocution,  if  his  talent  runs  in 
that  direction.  It  is  an  easy  business  for  him,  but  it  is  apt 
to  involve  a  great  waste  of  valuable  time  for  all  except  the 


For  an  excellent  theoretical  discussion  of  colloquial  German,  con- 
taining many  useful  hints  to  the  teacher,  we  call  attention  to  Wun- 
derlich's  Unsere  Umgangsprache,  Weimar,  1894. 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  ASSOCIATION  OF  AMERICA       55 

reciter.  Finally,  it  is  not  to  be  forgotten  that  this  kind 
of  exercise,  if  it  is  felt  as  an  irksome  task,  may  easily 
create  a  positive  distaste  instead  of  a  liking  for  the  gems 
of  poetry.  We  must  remember  Lord  Byron's  pathetic 
exclamation : 

Then  farewell  Horace,  whom  I  hated  so. 

To  sum  up,  we  would  not  be  understood  as  condemning 
altogether  the  exercise  of  memorizing  poetry,  but  we 
have  not  thought  it  of  sufficient  importance  to  deserve 
a  place  in  the  scheme  of  work  outlined  above.  At  any  rate, 
it  should  not  be  made  much  of  in  the  early  stages.  The 
poems  given  out  for  committing  to  memory  should  be 
few  and  short  and  selected  with  reference  to  their  sim- 
plicity and  naturalness  of  expression.  The  teacher  who 
omits  the  exercise  altogether  during  the  first  year  will 
make  no  great  mistake.  The  recitation  of  well-chosen 
dialogues,  with  the  parts  assigned,  is  a  better  exercise,  and 
we  believe  is  usually  found  more  interesting  to  learners. 

(3)  Grammar. — It  is  assumed  that  simple  exercises  in 
colloquial  German  will  begin  with  the  very  first  lesson  and 
take  a  portion  of  each  recitation  period,  even  when  the 
pupil  is  learning  the  alphabet  and  becoming  familiar  with 
the  values  of  the  letters.  It  goes  without  saying  that  the 
sentences  learned  should  occasionally  be  written  down  as 
well  as  often  repeated  orally.  Practice  in  writing  German 
from  dictation  is  helpful  in  learning  to  spell,  and  should 
be  kept  up  for  some  time.  It  may,  however,  be  discon- 
tinued earlier  than  in  case  of  French,  because  German 
spelling  is  much  easier  to  learn  than  French. 

Whether  the  script  letters  should  be  learned  at  the  same 
time  with  the  print  letters  and  regularly  used  in  all  written 


'56  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  TWELVE  OF 

work  is  a  question  upon  which  opinions  differ.  On  the 
one  hand,  it  is  urged  that  the  script  letters  are  not  at  all  dif- 
ficult to  master,  and  that  the  use  of  them  facilitates  learn- 
ing to  spell.  Such  spelling  as  muss,  mussen,  Herz,  sitzen, 
and  others,  come  more  easily  in  the  German  than  in  the 
Roman  script.  It  is  also  urged  that,  as  Germans  use  the 
script  in  their  ordinary  writing,  those  who  are  studying 
the  language  should  learn  to  use  it.  The  opposing  argu- 
ments are  that  there  is  nothing  educational  or  practically 
useful  about  learning  to  write  the  German  script;  that 
for  Americans  it  is  quite  sufficient  to  be  able  to  read  it,  in 
case  they  should  some  time  get  a  letter  written  in  it ;  that 
boys  and  girls  of  high-school  age  have  usually  formed 
their  hand  in  English,  and  that,  unless  great  pains  be  taken 
with  them  at  the  start — that  is,  unless  the  teacher  be  both 
able  and  willing  to  teach  penmanship  for  its  own  sake — • 
they  are  almost  sure  to  learn  to  write  the  script  in  an 
ugly  un-German  hand,  like  nothing  ever  met  with  out- 
side the  class  room.  From  this  it  is  clear  that  there  is 
something  to  be  said  upon  both  sides.  Upon  the  whole, 
the  committee  are  of  the  opinion  that  the  use  of  the  Ger- 
man script  in  the  schools  should  not  be  regarded  as  a 
matter  of  great  importance  and  should  never  be  required 
at  a  college  examination.  Teachers  who  write  it  well  and 
are  willing  to  take  the  time  to  teach  it  well  may  very 
properly  insist  upon  it.  Others  will  be  upon  safe  ground 
if  they  permit  the  use  of  the  Roman  letters  in  all  written 
work.  In  that  case,  however,  they  should  sooner  or  later 
give  their  pupils  some  practice  in  reading  German  hand- 
writing. 

It  is  assumed  that  learners  who  are  of  high-school  age 
will  take  up  the  study  of  grammar  after  a  few  preliminary 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  ASSOCIATION  OF  AMERICA       57 

lessons.  But  for  several  weeks  the  grammar  lessons 
should  be  short  and  easy,  so  as  to  allow  an  abundance 
of  time  each  day  for  colloquial  exercises  and  drill  upon 
pronunciation.  As  the  course  proceeds  the  study  of  gram- 
mar and  the  doing  of  exercises  directly  related  to  the 
study  of  grammar  may  properly  be  allowed  to  absorb  an 
increasing  portion  of  the  time,  but  the  colloquial  practice 
should  be  kept  up.  In  the  teaching  of  grammar  the  most 
important  principle  to  be  kept  in  view  is  that  the  grammar 
is  there  for  the  sake  of  the  language  and  not  the  language 
for  the  sake  of  the  grammar.  The  recitation  of  paradigms, 
rules,  and  exceptions  is  always  in  danger  of  degenerating 
into  a  facile  routine  in  which  there  is  but  little  profit.  The 
important  thing  is  not  that  the  learner  should  acquire 
facility  in  telling  off  paradigms,  quoting  statements,  and 
explaining  principles  according  to  the  book,  but  that  he 
should  acquire  facility  in  understanding  and  using  the 
language.  The  maxim  should  be :  Little  theory  and  much 
application.  It  is  of  small  use  to  be  able  to  state  correctly 
the  principle  of  adjective  declension,  so  long  as  the  pupil, 
in  attempting  to  apply  the  principle  in  a  simple  case,  is 
obliged  to  stop  and  think,  to  recall  his  grammar,  and  per- 
haps to  guess  after  all.  The  right  forms  must  be  so  bred 
into  the  blood  that  they  come  naturally  from  tongue  and 
pen.  This,  of  course,  requires  an  endless  amount  of  repe- 
tition, which  may  at  times  become  tedious.  But  the  time 
spent  upon  this  elementary  drill  is  well  spent  and  tells  for 
good  throughout  the  course.  Teachers  should  not  be  in 
too  great  haste  to  get  to  reading  good  literature. 

The  first  difficulty  of  practical  importance  in  teaching 
German  grammar  relates  to  the  gender  and  declension  of 
nouns.  If  the  attempt  is  made  to  master  the  gender  and 


58  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  TWELVE  OF 

declension  of  every  noun  that  is  met  with,  either  progress 
will  be  very  slow  (as  in  case  of  German  children  learning 
the  mother  tongue),  or  the  learner's  memory  soon  becomes 
overtaxed.  Trying  to  remember  everything,  he  soon 
ceases  to  remember  anything  with  absolute  confidence. 
The  best  way  to  deal  with  this  difficulty  is  to  concentrate 
attention  from  the  start  upon  those  nouns  that  belong  to 
the  language  of  everyday  life — the  names  of  familiar  ob- 
jects, relationships,  and  ideas — to  make  sure  of  these  and 
let  the  others  go.  A  list  of  such  nouns  can  be  made  out 
which  need  not  contain  more  than,  say,  300  words.  The 
pupil  who  at  the  end  of  a  two  years'  course  has  really 
learned  that  number  of  nouns,  so  that  the  right  gender  and 
the  right  plural  come  to  him  instantly,  has  done  quite 
enough.  More  should  not  be  expected  by  the  college  ex- 
aminer, so  far  as  concerns  those  nouns  the  gender  and 
declension  of  which  can  not  be  determined  by  inspection. 
It  is  of  course  assumed  that  the  candidate  will  know  about 
nouns  in  chen,  lein,  ei,  heit,  keit,  in,  schaft,  ung.  Whether 
he  knows  any  other  rules  for  gender  is  not  very  important. 
After  the  inflection  of  the  noun  the  other  grammatical 
topics  that  require  the  most  attention  are  the  inflection  of 
the  adjective,  the  forms  of  the  strong  verbs  and  modal 
auxiliaries,  the  use  of  prepositions,  and  the  subject  of  word 
order.  In  dealing  with  these  and  the  minor  difficulties  of 
German  grammar  it  is  customary  to  rely,  first,  upon  gram- 
matical exercises — that  is,  the  translation  from  German 
into  English  and  from  English  into  German  of  collections 
of  sentences  devised  or  selected  for  the  express  purpose  of 
illustrating  some  grammatical  point;  and,  second,  upon 
drill  connected  with  the  German  reading  lesson.  Both 
these  resources  are  good  if  properly  handled,  and  neither 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  ASSOCIATION  OF  AMERICA        59 

should  be  neglected.  To  do  its  proper  work  the  gram- 
matical exercise  should  not  be  simply  worked  through 
once  and  then  dismissed,  but  reviewed  and  repeated  until 
the  right  forms  come  instantly  from  tongue  and  pen. 
From  this  it  follows  that  the  sentences  of  the  grammatical 
exercise,  no  less  than  those  learned  in  colloquial  practice, 
should  represent  natural  forms  of  expression — things  that 
Germans  say  or  might  say  under  easily  supposable  condi- 
tions. It  used  to  be  thought,  and  perhaps  some  teachers 
and  text-book  makers  still  think,  that  anything  gram- 
matical will  do  for  teaching  grammar.  And  so,  perhaps, 
it  will;  but  it  is  possible  to  teach  the  grammar  at  the 
expense  of  the  language,  and  the  language  is  what  we  are 
after. 

To  ask  a  learner  to  upset  into  alleged  German  such 
sentences  as :  "  The  pupils'  coats  and  shoes  are  in  the 
maids'  hands,"  or  "  I  give  warm  clothes  and  red  apples 
to  poor  little  children,"  is,  to  say  the  least,  inexpedient. 
Instead  of  a  help,  it  is  a  hindrance  to  the  acquisition  of  a 
sensitive  feeling  for  the  language.  Rather  than  exercise 
his  wits  upon  the  translation  of  such  English  into  such 
German  it  were  much  better  that  the  learner  should  do  no 
English-German  translation  whatever,  but  simply  read  real 
German  and  learn  the  grammar  by  observation  and  appro- 
priate drill.  Perceiving  rightly  that  the  translation  of  bad 
exercises  is  a  waste  of  time  and  positively  harmful,  some 
teachers  have  been  led  to  the  position  that  all  English- 
German  translation  is  out  of  place  in  a  beginner's  course. 
They  argue  that  one  should  not  be  expected  to  translate 
into  a  language  until  he  knows  something  about  it,  until 
he  has  a  certain  working  capital  in  the  way  of  vocabulary, 
phraseology,  and  linguistic  feeling ;  that  so  long  as  he  must 


60  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  TWELVE  OF 

look  up  his  words  in  the  vocabulary  and  painfully  and 
faultily  piece  them  together  according  to  his  understanding 
of  the  grammar,  it  is  better  for  him  to  occupy  himself 
with  German  produced  by  those  who  know  the  language. 
This  reasoning  is  not  altogether  unsound,  but  properly 
applied  it  does  not  lead  to  the  rejection  of  all  English- 
German  translation  in  the  early  stages  of  study.  On  the 
contrary,  such  translation  is  itself  highly  useful  in  ac- 
quiring that  larger  working  capital  which  is  desired.  All 
that  is  necessary  is  to  avoid  difficult  or  independent  trans- 
lation. Throughout  the  elementary  course  the  English- 
German  translation  should  consist  of  little  else  than  easy 
variations  upon  a  German  text  already  studied.  The  Ger- 
man text  should  furnish  or  suggest  substantially  all  that 
the  learner  needs  to  know,  previous  acquirements  being  of 
course  taken  into  consideration.  Here  the  maxim  should 
be:  A  great  deal  of  the  easy  rather  than  a  little  of  the 
difficult. 

We  come  now  to  the  subject  of  drilling  upon  the  read- 
ing lesson.  There  are  various  kinds  of  questions  that  can 
be  asked  about  a  text,  but  three  types  are  prominent  in 
the  practice  of  teachers.  In  the  first  type  the  questions  call 
for  the  recitation  of  paradigms  and  rules  and  the  ex- 
planation of  grammatical  principles.  In  the  second  type 
the  questions  call  for  the  translation  into  German  of  Eng- 
lish sentences  based  upon  the  text.  In  the  third  the  object 
is  to  draw  the  pupil  out  and  induce  him  to  talk  about 
what  is  said  in  the  text.  To  illustrate,  supposing  the  text 
in  hand  to  be  Der  See  macht  eine  Bticht  ins  Land: 

( i )  Decline  Der  See.  What  is  the  meaning  of  die  See? 
Decline  die  See.  Give  the  principal  parts  of  macht.  In- 
flect macht  in  the  present  indicative  active.  Give  a  synop- 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  ASSOCIATION  OF  AMERICA       6l 

sis  of  its  tenses  in  the  indicative,  first  person  singular. 
Why  is  the  accusative  used  after  in?  Decline  Land.  What 
is  the  difference  between  Lande  and  Lander? 

(2)  How  would  you  say  in  German:  The  lake  is  quiet. 
The  sea  is  quiet.    My  home  is  on  the  lake.    I  see  a  ship  on 
the  sea.    There  are  many  lakes  in  Switzerland  ?    Give  the 
German  for :  I  made.    I  have  made.    I  shall  make.    What 
are  you  making?    Paper  is  now  made  of  wood.    Would 
it  do  to  say  eine  Bucht  im  Lande?    How  would  you  say : 
He  is  coming  to  land.     I  am  going  into  the  country.     I 
live  in  the  country.    That  is  the  case  in  all  lands  except 
the  Netherlands? 

(3)  Was  macht  der  See?     Welcher  See  ist  gemeint? 
Wo  befindet  sich  dieser  See?     Von  welchem  Lande  ist 
hier  die  Rede?    War  en  Sie  je  in  der  Schweiz?    Was  fur 
eine  Regierung  hat  die  Schweiz? 

Now,  the  best  teaching  will  make  some  use  of  all  these 
types  of  drill  questions,  but  more  of  the  second  than  of 
the  first  or  third.  The  objection  to  an  exclusive  or  even 
a  predominant  use  of  the  first  is  that  it  teaches  the  pupil 
to  "  rattle  off  "  paradigms  and  rules,  but  not  to  understand 
or  to  use  the  language.  Instead  of  learning  to  think  in 
German,  as  the  phrase  is,  he  learns  to  think  grammar  in 
the  terms  of  his  text-book.  Every  college  examiner  is 
acquainted  with  the  youth  who  will  write  er  hat  gekommen 
and  then,  on  demand,  give  correctly  the  rule  for  the  use 
of  the  auxiliaries  of  tense.  What  is  needed  in  his  case  is 
not  more  practice  in  repeating  the  rule,  but  more  practice 
in  writing  and  saying  er  ist  gekommen.  The  objection 
to  an  exclusive  use  of  type  3  is  that  it  does  not  spe- 
cifically teach  grammar  at  all.  In  types  I  and  2  the 
questions  may,  of  course,  be  put  in  German  instead  of 


62  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  TWELVE  OF 

English.  It  is  to  be  observed,  however,  that  the  German 
grammatical  terms  are  rather  difficult  to  learn  and  do  not 
come  under  the  head  of  "  everyday  forms  of  expression." 
The  principal  value  of  grammatical  drill  conducted  in  Ger- 
man is  to  teach  the  learner  to  handle  the  sentence.  So  far 
as  the  vocabulary  is  concerned  he  might  better  be  learning 
something  else. 

(4)  Reading  matter. — In  outlining  the  work  of  the  ele- 
mentary course  we  have  recommended  that,  aside  from  the 
German-English  exercises  of  the  grammar,  the  reading 
matter  of  the  first  year  consist  of  graduated  texts  from 
a  reader.  This  is  the  usual  practice,  and  it  certainly  has 
some  argument  in  its  favor.  The  advantage  of  a  reader 
is  that  it  offers  variety,  introduces  the  learner  to  different 
styles,  and  leads  him  gradually  from  that  which  is  very 
easy  to  that  which  is  more  difficult.  Some  teachers,  how- 
ever, prefer  to  make  no  use  of  a  reader,  but  to  pass  directly 
from  the  grammar  to  complete  stories  having  some  literary 
value.  They  urge  that  such  reading  is  more  interesting 
and  profitable  than  the  disconnected  texts  usually  found 
in  readers.  Others,  while  approving  the  use  of  a  reader, 
will  prefer  to  drop  it  earlier  than  our  scheme  proposes,  and 
to  read  at  least  one  complete  story  during  the  first  year. 
Questions  of  this  kind  are  not  very  important;  and  there 
are  no  general  principles  on  which  to  decide  them.  Teach- 
ers must  decide  according  to  the  character  of  their  classes. 
Fortunately  there  is  now  no  lack  of  suitable  material.  We 
have  several  very  good  readers  and  a  large  number  of 
Marchen,  Geschichten,  Erzahlungen,  and  Novellen,  pub- 
lished both  separately  and  in  collections,  and  all  annotated 
for  beginners. 

In  choosing  from  the  mass  of  literature  available  for  the 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  ASSOCIATION  OF  AMERICA       63 

second  year  the  aim  should  be,  of  course,  to  find  that  which 
is  interesting  to  the  young,  wholesome,  well-written,  and 
not  too  difficult.  It  is  natural  to  begin  with  the  fairy 
stories,  or  Mdrchen,  in  which  Germany  is  so  prolific,  but 
pupils  of  high-school  age  should  not  be  kept  too  long  on  a 
diet  of  Mdrchen.  If,  at  the  end  of  the  elementary 
course,  the  pupil  is  to  be  able  to  read  easy  narra- 
tive prose  at  sight,  it  is  necessary  that  he  have  practice 
in  reading  different  styles.  Lively,  realistic  narrative,  with 
plenty  of  dialogue,  is  to  be  preferred.  The  German 
Mdrchen  is  apt  to  appear  childish  to  American  boys  and 
girls.  On  the  other  hand,  teachers  often  complain  that  the 
most  of  the  tales  furnished  by  conspiring  editors  and  pub- 
lishers are  more  or  less  mawkish  love  tales,  and  they  sigh 
for  vigorous  stories  of  adventure  w.ith  the  grand  passion 
left  out  or  made  little  of.  This  is  a  demand  which  future 
editors  may  well  keep  in  view.  Meanwhile  we  must  re- 
member that  the  Germans  are  a  more  sentimental  people 
than  the  Americans,  and  that  one  of  the  objects  for  which 
we  study  German  in  school  is  to  learn  what  the  Germans 
are  like. 

Stories  suitable  for  the  elementary  course  can  be  selected 
from  the  following  list :  *  Andersen's  Mdrchen  and  Bilder- 
buch  ohne  Bilder;  Arnold's  Fritz  auf  Ferien;  Baumbach's 
die  Nonna  and  Der  Schwiegersohn;  Gerstacker's  Ger- 
melshausen;  Heyse's  L'Arrabbiata,  Das  Mddchen  von 
Treppi,  and  Anfang  und  Ende;  Hillern's  Hoher  als  die 
Kirche;  Jensen's  Die  braune  Erica;  Leander's  Trdumer- 
eien,  and  Kleine  Geschichten;  Seidel's  Mdrchen;  Stokl'? 


lln  all  the  reading  lists  the  order  is  alphabetical.  It  expresses 
no  opinion  with  regard  to  the  merit  of  the  texts  as  compared 
with  one  another. 


64  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  TWELVE  OF 

Unter  dem  Christbaum;  Storm's  Immensee  and  G>- 
schichten  aus  der  Tonne;  Zschokke's  Der  serbrochene 
Krug. 

Good  plays  adapted  to  the  elementary  course  are  much 
harder  to  find  than  good  stories.  Five-act  plays  are  too 
long.  They  require  more  time  than  it  is  advisable  to  de- 
vote to  any  one  text.  Among  shorter  plays  the  best  avail- 
able are  perhaps  Benedix's  Der  Prozesz,  Der  Weiber- 
feind,  and  Giinstige  Vorzeichen;  Elz's  Er  ist  nicht  eifer- 
suchtig;  Wichert's  An  der  Majorsecke;  Wilhelmi's  Einer 
muss  heiraten.  It  is  recommended,  however,  that  not 
more  than  one  of  these  plays  be  read.  The  narrative  style 
should  predominate.  A  good  selection  of  reading  matter 
for  the  second  year  would  be  Andersen's  Mdrchen,  or 
Bilderbuch,  or  Leander's  Trdumereien;  to  the  extent  of 
say  forty  pages.  After  that  such  a  story  as  Das  kalte 
Hers,  or  Der  serbrochene  Krug;  then  Holier  als  die 
Kirche,  or  Immensee;  next  a  good  story  by  Heyse,  Baum- 
bach,  or  Seidel ;  lastly  Der  Prozesz. 

A  minor  question  which  sometimes  exercises  the  mind 
of  the  teacher  is  the  question  of  the  special  vocabulary 
versus  the  dictionary.  The  obvious  advantage  of  £he  special 
vocabulary  is  that  it  is  very  much  more  convenient  for  the 
learner.  A  well-known  schoolman  in  writing  to  the  com- 
mittee upon  this  subject,  sums  up  his  views  in  the  proposi- 
tion that  "  dictionaries  are  a  nuisance."  Nor  is  it  easy 
to  find  any  valid  pedagogical  objection  to  the  use  of  a 
properly  prepared  special  vocabulary.  The  objection  most 
often  urged  is  that  in  using  a  special  vocabulary  the 
scholar  does  not  learn,  nor  try  to  learn,  what  the  word 
really  means  in  and  of  itself,  but  only  what  it  means  in  the 
context  where  he  has  found  it.  It  is  urged,  therefore, 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  ASSOCIATION  OF  AMERICA       65 

that  before  he  can  become  independent,  and  acquire  schol- 
arly habits  of  study,  he  must  emancipate  himself  from  the 
special  vocabulary  and  learn  to  use  the  dictionary.  There 
is  some  force  in  this  argument,  but  not  much;  for  what 
the  learner  invariably  does  in  using  the  dictionary  is  to 
pick  out,  from  the  various  meanings  given,  the  particular 
one  that  suits  his  occasion.  To  the  others  he  pays  no  at- 
tention. When  he  comes  across  the  word  in  another  sense, 
he  looks  it  up  again.  It  is  thus  a  saving  of  time  if  he  have 
the  right  meaning,  unincumbered  by  the  others,  given  him 
in  a  special  vocabulary.  Really  the  whole  question  is 
mainly  one  of  saving  time.  If,  in  getting  his  lesson,  the 
learner  could  have  at  his  elbow  someone  who  would  sim- 
ply tell  him  the  meaning  of  the  word,  that  would  be  better 
still,  if  he  would  but  remember  what  he  were  told.  But 
there  is  undoubtedly  some  truth  in  the  principle  that  what 
is  acquired  with  difficulty,  that  is,  with  exertion  and  ex- 
ercise of  judgment,  is  the  more  likely  to  be  remembered. 
Meanings  that  come  easily  in  footnotes  are  apt  to  go  no 
less  easily.  The  whole  question  is  one  upon  which  no  fixed 
rules  can  be  laid  down.  There  is  no  serious  objection  to 
the  use  of  special  vocabularies  throughout  the  elementary 
course,  provided  the  right  texts  are  available  in  editions 
provided  with  vocabularies,  but  the  choice  of  reading  mat- 
ter should  not  turn  primarily  upon  this  consideration.  It 
is  best  to  provide  a  good  course  of  reading,  with  variety, 
interest,  and  progression,  even  if,  toward  the  end,  the  dic- 
tionary has  to  be  used. 

(5)  Translation  into  English;  sight  reading. — In  the 
majority  of  schools  it  would  appear  that,  after  the  first  few 
months,  the  study  of  German  consists  principally  in  the 
translation  of  German  literature  into  English.  Transla- 


66  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  TWELVE  OF 

tion  is  the  exercise  which  is  felt  by  both  teacher  and  pupil 
to  be  the  most  important,  and  it  is  the  one,  accordingly, 
which  is  most  insisted  upon.  It  is  also  the  exercise  most 
easily  handled.  To  sit  and  hold  a  book  while  the  members 
of  the  class  translate,  one  after  the  other,  into  class-room 
English,  to  correct  their  more  serious  blunders,  and  help 
them  to  "  get  the  sense,"  requires  no  great  amount  of 
preparation,  no  great  expenditure  of  energy  or  ingenuity. 
But  while  it  has  its  dangers,  the  profitableness  of  transla- 
tion can  not  be  successfully  attacked.  Whatever  may  be 
true  of  very  young  children,  one  who  already  knows  one 
language  will  learn  another  most  "  naturally,"  most  ex- 
peditiously,  and  most  thoroughly  by  means  of  comparison 
with  his  mother  tongue;  and  this  comparison,  as  was 
pointed  out  in  a  preceding  section,  is  an  important  instru- 
ment of  discipline  and  culture.  Moreover,  translation  is 
the  most  effective  and  the  most  readily  available  means  of 
determining  whether  the  sense  of  a  passage  is  exactly  un- 
derstood. It  is  the  best  detective  of  mental  haziness,  half- 
knowledge,  and  self-deception.  At  the  same  time  it  should 
not  be  forgotten  that  the  principal  object  of  study  is  not 
to  learn  to  translate,  but  to  learn  to  read  without  translat- 
ing. 

How  to  deal  with  translation  so  as  to  make  neither  too 
much  nor  too  little  of  it,  so  as  to  get  the  good  and  escape 
the  evil  of  it,  is  not  a  simple  problem  for  the  teacher.  It 
is  easy  to  say  that  good  translation  should  always  be  in- 
sisted on,  and  that  bad  English  should  never  be  allowed 
to  go  uncorrected.  As  a  counsel  of  perfection,  this  is  no 
doubt  good.  The  trouble  ist  however,  that  really  good 
translation  of  real  literature  is  an  art  requiring  literary 


THE   MODERN   LANGUAGE   ASSOCIATION   OF   AMERICA     67 

skill.  There  must  be  time  for  the  mental  balancing  of 
alternatives,  the  testing  of  synonyms,  etc.  No  one  can  do 
it  offhand.  To  expect  schoolboys  or  college  students  to  do 
it  in  the  ordinary  routine  of  class  work,  is  to  expect  im- 
possibilities. On  the  other  hand,  slovenly,  incorrect,  and 
unidiomatic  translation  is  worse  than  a  waste  of  time. 
The  young  person  who  gets  into  the  habit  of  murdering 
his  mother  tongue  in  cold  blood,  under  the  pretense  of 
learning  a  foreign  language,  does  himself  more  harm 
than  good.  What,  then,  is  to  be  done?  The  practical  an- 
swer would  seem  to  be  this:  Between  the  extremes  of 
atrocious  English,  which  should  not  be  endured,  and  the 
really  good  English,  which  is  unattainable,  there  is  a 
wide  belt  of  what  may  be  called  tolerable  English;  Eng- 
lish which  is  not  excellent  from  a  literary  point  of  view, 
but  is  at  least  clear,  grammatical,  free  from  gross  impro- 
prieties in  respect  to  idiom,  and  reasonably  faithful  to  the 
meaning  of  the  original.  Such  tolerable  English  is  all 
that  can  be  expected  in  the  ordinary  routine  of  the  class 
room.  It  is,  however,  desirable  that  the  learner  become 
aware  that  there  is  a  higher  ideal,  and  that  he  have  some 
practice  in  trying  to  reach  it.  To  this  end  a  passage  of 
German  text  should  occasionally  be  given  out  for  a  care- 
fully prepared  written  translation,  with  instructions  to 
take  time  and  make  the  work  just  as  good  as  possible. 
Such  translations  should  then  be  criticised  by  the  teacher 
and  compared  with  one  another  in  the  class.  Attention 
should  be  called  to  the  small  points  of  idiom,  arrangement, 
choice  of  words,  turn  of  phrase,  etc,,  which  make  up  the 
difference  between  the  tolerable  and  the  excellent.  In  this 
way  the  pupil's  literary  sense  will  be  cultivated;  he  will 


68  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  TWELVE  OF 

bcome  familiar  with  the  idea  of  translation  as  an  art,  and 
the  effect  will  be  to  improve  gradually  the  quality  of  his 
ordinary  work. 

The  next  question  is:  How  long  and  to  what  extent 
should  the  routine  translation  of  good  German  into  toler- 
able English  be  insisted  on  in  the  class  room?  The  an- 
swer is :  So  long  as  and  wherever  the  teacher  is  uncertain 
whether  the  meaning  of  the  original  is  understood.  If 
there  is  complete  certainty  that  the  learner  can  translate  his 
passage  of  German  into  tolerable  English,  it  is,  as  a  rule, 
not  worth  while  to  have  him  do  it ;  the  time  can  be  used  to 
better  advantage.  An  exception  may  be  made,  of  course, 
in  the  case  of  pupils  who  are  for  any  reason  unusually 
backward  in  their  English,  or  for  such  as  may  be  suspected 
of  not  preparing  their  lessons.  But  for  capable  pupils  who 
have  a  right  attitude  toward  their  teacher  and  their  work, 
there  presently  comes  a  time  when  the  routine  translation 
in  class  of  what  they  have  previously  prepared  ceases  to  be 
profitable.  They  learn  no  new  German  in  the  process,  and 
they  do  not  improve  their  command  of  English.  For  A. 
B,  C,  and  D,  who  have  prepared  their  lessons  and  know 
perfectly  well  how,  to  translate  a  given  passage,  to  sit  in 
the  class  while  E  actually  translates  it  means  a  waste  of 
time.  When  that  stage  is  reached  it  is  time  to  drop  the 
systematic  translation  of  the  entire  lesson  in  class,  to  call 
only  for  the  rendering  of  words  or  passages  that  are 
liable  to  be  misunderstood,  and  to  use  the  time  thus  gained 
in  some  exercise  more  profitable  than  superfluous  transla- 
tion. 

One  such  exercise  is  reading  at  sight.  Since  the  general 
aim  in  the  elementary  course  is  to  learn  to  read  very  easy 
narrative  prose  at  sight  and  not  to  learn  to  translate  any 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  ASSOCIATION  OF  AMERICA        69 

specified  texts,  and  since  the  candidate  for  admission  to 
college  will  probably  be  tested  upon  some  text  that  he  has 
never  studied,  it  is  evident  that  considerable  practice 
should  be  given  in  sight  reading.  Teachers  sometimes  ob- 
ject to  this  exercise  on  the  ground  that  it  encourages 
guesswork  and  inaccuracy.  But  the  objection  is  not  valid. 
The  object  of  the  exercise  is  to  increase  the  learner's  vo- 
cabulary, to  make  him  feel  that  he  can  read  German  that 
he  has  not  previously  studied  and  to  give  him  facility  in 
such  reading.  There  is  not  the  slightest  objection  to  his 
guessing  at  the  meaning  of  a  new  word.  All  our  reading 
is  largely  a  process  of  divination,  and  the  better  we  can 
divine  from  the  context  the  better  we  can  read.  Of  course 
the  wrong  guesses  must  be  corrected,  and  the  teacher  is 
there  for  that  purpose.  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  say  that 
for  sight  reading  the  very  easiest  texts  that  can  be  found 
should  be  chosen.  Grimm's  M'drchen  are  well  adapted  for 
the  earliest  experiments,  then  Meissner's  Aus  meiner  Welt 
or  Volkmann's  Kleine  Geschichten. 

(6)  Reproductive  translation  into  German. — It  will  be 
observed  that  the  programme  of  work  for  the  second 
year  of  the  elementary  course  provides  for  practice  "  in 
the  off-hand  reproduction,  sometimes  orally  and  some- 
times in  writing,  of  the  substance  of  short  and  easy 
selected  passages."  This  is  what  the  Germans  call  "  freie 
Reproduktipn,"  and  is  one  of  the  most  profitable  exercises 
possible.  It  teaches  the  pupil  to  give  heed  not  only  to  the 
meaning  but  to  the  form  in  which  it  is  expressed,  to  put 
thoughts  in  German  with  German  as  a  starting  point.  The 
language  of  the  original  should,  of  course,  not  be  mem- 
orized verbatim ;  what  is  wanted  is  not  an  effort  of  the 
memory,  but  an  attempt  to  express  thought  in  German 


7O  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  TWELVE  OF 

forms  that  are  remembered  in  a  general  way  but  not  re> 
membered  exactly.  The  objection  to  independent  transla- 
tion from  English  into  German  is  that  for  a  long  time  it 
is  necessarily  mechanical.  The  translator  has  no  help 
except  his  dictionary  and  grammar.  His  translation  is 
mere  upsetting.  In  free  reproduction,  on  the  contrary,  he 
instinctively  starts  from  his  memory  of  the  original.  His 
thoughts  tend  to  shape  themselves  in  German  form.  In 
short,  he  learns  to  think  in  German. 

SECTION  VIII 

THE  INTERMEDIATE  COURSE  IN  GERMAN 
(a)  THE  AIM  OF  THE  INSTRUCTION 

At  the  end  of  the  intermediate  course  the  pupil  should 
be  able  to  read  at  sight  German  prose  of  ordinary  difficulty, 
whether  recent  or  classical ;  to  put  into  German  a  connected 
passage  of  simple  English,  paraphrased  from  a  given 
text  in  German ;  to  answer  any  grammatical  questions  re- 
lating to  usual  forms  and  essential  principles  of  the  lan- 
guage, including  syntax  and  word  formation,  and  to 
translate  and  explain  ( so  far  as  explanation  may  be  neces- 
sary) a  passage  of  classical  literature  taken  from  some 
text  previously  studied. 

(&)    THE  WORK  TO  BE  DONE 

The  work  should  comprise,  in  addition  to  the  ele- 
mentary course,  the  reading  of  about  400  pages  of  mod- 
erately difficult  prose  and  poetry,  with  constant  practice  in 
giving,  sometimes  orally  and  sometimes  in  writing,  para- 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  ASSOCIATION  OF  AMERICA       /I 

phrases,  abstracts,  or  reproductions  from  memory  of 
selected  portions  of  the  matter  read ;  also  grammatical  drill 
upon  the  less  usual  strong  verbs,  the  use  of  articles,  cases, 
auxiliaries  of  all  kinds,  tenses  and  modes  (with  special 
reference  to  the  infinitive  and  subjunctive),  and  likewise 
upon  word  order  and  word  formation. 

(c)    SUGGESTIONS  TO  THE  TEACHER 

The  intermediate  course  is  supposed  to  be  the  elemen- 
tary course,  plus  one  year's  work  at  the  rate  of  not  less 
than  four  recitations  a  week.  Suitable  reading  matter  for 
the  third  year  can  be  selected  from  such  works  as  the  fol- 
lowing: Ebner-Eschenbach's  Die  Freiherren  von  Gem- 
perlein;  Frey  tag's  Die  Journalist  en  and  Bilder  aus  der 
deutschen  Vergangenheit,  for  example  Karl  der  Grosse, 
Aus  den  Kreuzzugen,  Doktor  Luther,  Aus  dem  Staat 
Friedrichs  des  Grossen;  Fouque's  Undine;  Gerstacker's 
Irrfahrten;  Goethe's  Hermann  und  Dorothea  and  I  phi- 
genie;  Heine's  poems  and  Reisebilder;  Hoffmann's  His- 
torische  Ers'dhlungen;  Lessing's  Minna  von  Barnhelm; 
Meyer's  Gustav  Adolph's  Page;  Moser's  Der  Bibliothe- 
kar;  Riehl's  Novellen,  for  example,  Burg  Neideck,  Der 
Fluch  der  Schonheit,  Der  stumme  Ratsherr,  Das  Spiel- 
mannskind;  Rosegger's  Waldheimat;  Schiller's  Der  Ncife 
als  Onkel,  Der  Geisterseher,  Wilhelm  Tell,  Die  Jungfrau 
von  Orleans,  Das  Lied  von  der  Glocke,  Balladen;  Schef- 
fel's  Der  Trompeter  von  Sakkingen;  Uhland's  poems; 
Wildenbruch's  Das  edle  Blut.  A  good  selection  would  be : 
(i)  one  of  Riehl's  novelettes;  (2)  one  of  Frey  tag's 
"  pictures ;  "  (3)  part  of  Undine  or  Der  Geisterseher;  (4) 
a  short  course  of  reading  in  lyrics  and  ballads;  (5)  a 
classical  play  by  Schiller,  Lessing,  or  Goethe. 


72  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  TWELVE  OF 

The  general  principles  of  teaching  set  forth  in  the  pre- 
ceding section  apply  also  to  the  work  of  the  intermediate 
course.  Translation  should  be  insisted  upon  so  far  as 
necessary,  but  the  aim  should  be  to  dispense  with  it  more 
and  more.  Every  expedient  should  be  employed  which 
will  teach  the  scholar  to  comprehend  and  feel  the  original 
directly,  without  the  intervention  of  English.  Occasional 
exercises  in  preparing  very  careful  written  translations 
should  be  continued.  Practice  should  be  given  in  reading 
at  sight  from  authors  of  moderate  difficulty,  such  as  Riehl 
or  Freytag.  The  "  free  reproduction "  should  by  all 
means  be  kept  up.  It  will  be  found  much  more  valuable 
at  this  stage  than  independent  translation  of  English  into 
German.  In  dealing  with  classical  literature  thorough  lit- 
erary studies  are,  of  course,  not  to  be  expected,  but  an  ef- 
fort should  be  made  to  bring  home  to  the  learner  the  char- 
acteristic literary  qualities  of  the  text  studied,  and  to  give 
him  a  correct  general  idea  of  the  author. 

SECTION  IX 

THE  ADVANCED  COURSE  IN  GERMAN 
(a)  THE  AIM  OF  THE  INSTRUCTION 

At  the  end  of  the  advanced  course  the  student  should  be 
able  to  read,  after  brief  inspection,  any  German  literature 
of  the  last  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  that  is  free  from 
unusual  textual  difficulties,  to  put  into  German  a  passage 
of  simple  English  prose,  to  answer  in  German  questions 
relating  to  the  lives  and  works  of  the  great  writers  studied, 
and  to  write  in  German  a  short,  independent  theme  upon 
some  assigned  topic. 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  ASSOCIATION  OF  AMERICA     73 
(6)    THE  WORK  TO   BE  DONE 

The  work  of  the  advanced  course  (last  year)  should 
comprise  the  reading  of  about  500  pages  of  good  literature 
in  prose  and  poetry,  reference  reading  upon  the  lives  and 
works  of  the  great  writers  studied,  the  writing  in  Ger- 
man of  numerous  short  themes  upon  assigned  subjects, 
independent  translation  of  English  into  German. 

(c)   SUGGESTIONS   TO  THE   TEACHER 

Suitable  reading  matter  for  the  last  year  will  be:  Frey- 
tag's  Soil  und  Haben;  Fulda's  Der  Talisman;  Goethe's 
dramas  (except  Faust)  and  prose  writings  (say  extracts 
from  Werther  and  Dichtung  und  Wahrheif);  Grillparzer's 
Ahnfrau  or  Der  Traum  ein  Leben;  Hauff's  Lichtenstein; 
Heine's  more  difficult  prose  (for  example,  Uber  Deutsch- 
land);  Kleist's  Prinz  von  Hamburg;  Korner's  Zriny;  Les- 
sing's  Emilia  Galotti  and  prose  writings  (say  extracts  from 
the  Hamburgische  Dramaturgic  or  Laokoon);  Scheffel's 
Ekkehard;  Schiller's  Wallenstein,  Maria  Stuart,  Braut 
von  Messina,  and  historical  prose  (say  the  third  book  of 
the  Geschichte  des  dreiszigjahrigen  Krieges);  Suder- 
mann's  Johannes;  Tieck's  Genoveva;  Wildenbruch's 
Heinrich. 

A  good  selection  from  this  list  would  be:  (i)  A  recent 
novel,  such  as  Ekkehard  or  Soil  und  Haben,  read  not  in  its 
entirety,  but  in  extracts  sufficient  to  give  a  good  idea  of  the 
plot,  the  style,  and  the  characters;  (2)  Egmont  or  Gb'tz ; 
(3)  a  short  course  of  reading  in  Goethe's  prose  (say  the 
Sesenheim  episode  from  Dichtung  und  Wahrheif);  (4) 
Wallenstein' s  Lager  and  Wallenstein' s  Tod,  with  the  third 
book  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War ;  (5)  Emilia  Galotti;  (6) 


74  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  TWELVE  OF 

a  romantic  drama,  such  as  Genoveva  or  Der  Prim  von 
Hamburg.  It  is  assumed  that  by  the  time  the  fourth  year 
is  reached,  if  the  preceding  instruction  has  been  what  it 
should  be,  translation  in  class  can  be  largely  dispensed  with 
and  the  works  read  somewhat  rapidly.  Of  course  they 
can  not  be  thoroughly  studied,  but  thorough  literary  study 
belongs  to  the  college  or  the  university.  It  is  not  sound 
doctrine  for  the  secondary  school  that  one  work  studied 
with  the  painstaking  thoroughness  of  the  professional 
scholar  is  worth  half  a  dozen  read  rapidly.  In  the  sec- 
ondary school  the  aim  should  be  to  learn  to  read  easily, 
rapidly,  and  yet  with  intelligent,  general  appreciation, 
somewhat  as  an  ordinary  educated  American  reads  Shake- 
speare. Such  a  person  in  reading  Shakespeare  will  find 
much  that  he  does  not  fully  understand,  archaic  phrases, 
obscure  allusions,  etc.  If  he  were  to  work  out  all  these 
things  in  the  manner  of  a  scholar,  and  go  deeply  into  the 
literary,  historical,  and  psychological  questions  involved  in 
a  single  one  of  Shakespeare's  great  plays,  it  would  take 
a  very  long  time.  Nevertheless,  he  can  read  the  play  in- 
telligently in  a  few  hours.  An  editor's  note  helps  him 
quickly  over  the  graver  difficulties,  and  when  he  is  done  he 
has  a  good  general  idea  of  the  work,  and  has  been  greatly 
profited  by  the  reading  of  it. 

The  other  lines  of  work  suggested  for  the  advanced 
course  appear  to  require  no  further  comment.  They  ex- 
plain themselves,  and  grow  naturally  out  of  what  has  gone 
before. 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  ASSOCIATION  OF  AMERICA       75 

SECTION  X 

THE  ELEMENTARY  COURSE  IN  FRENCH 
(0)  THE  AIM  OF  THE  INSTRUCTION 

At  the  end  of  the  elementary  course  the  pupil  should 
be  able  to  pronounce  French  accurately,  to  read  at  sight 
easy  French  prose,  to  put  into  French  simple  English  sen- 
tences taken  from  the  language  of  everyday  life,  or  based 
upon  a  portion  of  the  French  text  read,  and  to  answer 
questions  on  the  rudiments  of  the  grammar  as  defined  be- 
low. 

(fc)   THE  WORK  TO  BE  DONE 

During  the  first  year  the  work  should  comprise:  (i) 
Careful  drill  in  pronunciation;  (2)  the  rudiments  of  gram- 
mar, including  the  inflection  of  the  regular  and  the  more 
common  irregular  verbs,  the  plural  of  nouns,  the  inflection 
of  adjectives,  participles,  and  pronouns;  the  use  of  per- 
sonal pronouns,  common  adverbs,  prepositions,  and  con- 
junctions; the  order  of  words  in  the  sentence,  and  the 
elementary  rules  of  syntax;  (3)  abundant  easy  exercises, 
designed  not  only  to  fix  in  the  memory  the  forms  and  prin- 
ciples of  grammar,  but  also  to  cultivate  readiness  in  the 
reproduction  of  natural  forms  of  expression;  (4)  the 
reading  of  from  100  to  175  duodecimo  pages  of  graduated 
texts,  with  constant  practice  in  translating  into  French 
easy  variations  of  the  sentences  read  (the  teacher  giving 
the  English),  and  in  reproducing  from  memory  sentences 
previously  read;  (5)  writing  French  from  dictation. 

During  the  second  year  the  work  should  comprise:  (i) 


76  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  TWELVE  OF 

The  reading  of  from  250  to  400  pages  of  easy  modern 
prose  in  the  form  of  stories,  plays,  or  historical  or  bio- 
graphical sketches;  (2)  constant  practice,  as  in  the 
previous  year,  in  translating  into  French  easy  variations 
upon  the  texts  read;  (3)  frequent  abstracts,  sometimes 
oral  and  sometimes  written,  of  portions  of  the  text  already 
read;  (4)  writing  French  from  dictation;  (5)  continued 
drill  upon  the  rudiments  of  grammar,  with  constant  appli- 
cation in  the  construction  of  sentences;  (6)  mastery  of 
the  forms  and  use  of  pronouns,  pronominal  adjectives,  of 
all  but  the  rare  irregular  verb  forms,  and  of  the  simpler 
uses  of  the  conditional  and  subjunctive. 

Suitable  texts  for  the  second  year  are:  About's  Le  roi 
des  montagnes,  Bruno's  Le  tour  de  la  France,  Daudet's 
easier  short  tales,  De  la  Bedolliere's  La  Mere  Michel  et 
son  chat,  Erckmann-Chatrian's  stories,  Foa's  Contes  bio- 
graphiques  and  Le  petit  Robinson  de  Paris,  Foncin's  Le 
pays  de  France,  Labiche  and  Martin's  La  poudre  aux  yeux 
and  Le  voyage  de  M.  Perrichon,  Legouve  and  Labiche's 
La  cigale  chez  les  fourmis,  Malot's  Sans  famille,  Mairet's 
La  tache  du  petit  Pierre,  Merimee's  Colomba,  extracts 
from  Michelet,  Sarcey's  Le  siege  de  Paris,  Verne's  stories. 

(c)     SUGGESTIONS  TO  THE  TEACHER 

The  suggestions  already  offered  upon  the  teaching  of 
elementary  German  are,  in  the  main,  equally  applicable  to 
the  teaching  of  elementary  French.  While  each  language 
has  its  own  peculiar  difficulties  that  require  special  atten- 
tion from  the  teacher,  the  general  principles  that  should 
regulate  the  work  are  the  same  for  both.  To  avoid  need- 
less repetition  we  refer  the  reader  back  to  what  is  said  in 
Section  VII,  c,  and  content  ourselves  here  with  adding 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  ASSOCIATION  OF  AMERICA       77 

a  few  further  observations  which  may  be  regarded  as 
supplementary. 

The  educational  value  of  the  study  of  French  in  cul- 
tivating habits  of  careful  discrimination,  of  mental  alert- 
ness, of  clear  statement,  must  never  be  lost  from  view,  and 
the  expediency  of  an  exercise  must  often  be  determined 
by  its  utility  in  attaining  these  ends.  The  knowledge 
gained  in  the  secondary  school  alone  can  rarely  be  of  im- 
mediate commercial  value,  but  it  should  be  a  most  service- 
able foundation  for  later  acquirements,  and  the  advocates 
of  oral  methods  may  fairly  lay  some  stress  on  this  con- 
sideration. The  demand  for  more  spoken  French  in  the 
class  room  rests  chiefly,  however,  on  other  grounds,  which 
may  be  summarized  as  follows : 

1 i )  Tongue  and  ear  are  most  efficient  aids  to  the  mem- 
ory, and  he  who  depends  on  eye  alone  deprives  himself  of 
indispensable  allies. 

(2)  Oral  work  gives  vivacity  to  the  class,  stimulates  the 
pupil  by  active  participation,  and  encourages  him  by  mak- 
ing him  feel  that  he  is  gaining  a  practical  command  of  the 
language. 

(3)  In  reproducing  French  sentences  several  can  be 
spoken  in  the  time  needed  to  write  one. 

(4)  The  hearer  is  compelled  to  grasp  the  sentence  as 
a  whole,  while  the  reader  is  apt  to  dwell  on  separate  words, 
distorting  and  often  reversing  the  sense,  which  can  only 
be  obtained  by  making  the  sentence  the  unit  of  thought 
and  interpreting  each  word  in  the  light  of  its  relation  to 
its  fellow.s. 

(5)  The  rapidity  of  speech  also  conduces  to  grasping 
thought  directly  from  the  French  with  no  intermediate 
English.    Many  readers  really  read  only  the  English  into 


78  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  TWELVE  OF 

which,  more  or  less  laboriously,  they  change  the  French 
words.  It  is  needless  to  dwell  on  the  fact  that  such  read- 
ers get  their  entire  thought  from  a  translation,  usually  a 
very  bad  one,  and  can  never  have  any  exact  perception  of 
literary  excellence  in  French  nor  distinguish  shades  of 
meaning  different  from  those  to  which  they  have  been  ac- 
customed in  English.  It  is  hard  to  see  how  such  a  one 
can  have  any  vivid  conception  of  a  lyric,  an  oration,  or  a 
dialogue ;  nor  can  he  understand  how,  when  translation  is 
required,  the  proper  order  is  French-thought-English,  and 
not  French-English,  with  the  thought  last  or  never. 

On  the  other  hand,  that  time  may  be  economically  used, 
rambling,  aimless  talking  must  not  be  tolerated  in  the 
class  room ;  and  a  teacher  who  does  not  possess  a  good  pro- 
nunciation and  a  ready  command  of  the  language  generally 
does  far  more  harm  than  good  by  practising  on  his  pupils. 
Whatever  recommendations  the  committee  has  made  as  to 
oral  work  apply  only  to  those  teachers  who  can  speak 
French  well. 

Especially  with  beginners  should  the  French  spoken  be 
accurately  pronounced.  Faults  of  pronunciation  once 
fixed  are  very  difficult  to  eradicate.  In  some  places  French 
has  been  introduced  into  grades  below  the  high  school,  and 
the  classes  intrusted  to  teachers  unable  to  pronounce  well. 
Irreparable  injury  has  thus  been  done.  The  utmost  pains 
must  be  taken  at  the  beginning,  especially  with  the  vowels  ; 
and  the  separate  sounds,  and  words  containing  them, 
should  be  pronounced  many  times  by  the  teacher  and  re- 
peated by  the  pupil.  For  a  long  time  every  new.  word 
should  thus  be  treated,  and  unless  a  phonetic  text  is  used 
the  pupil  should  always  hear  a  new  word  before  he  tries 
to  pronounce  it. 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  ASSOCIATION  OF  AMERICA        79 

Careful  memorizing  and  frequent  repetition  of  a  few 
lines  of  simple  prose  are  helpful  and  furnish  a  standard 
of  pronunciation  to  which  new  words  may  be  referred. 
Both  for  this  and  for  mastering  colloquial  and  idiomatic 
expressions,  word  order,  and  grammatical  forms,  it  is  ad- 
vised that  a  small  amount  of  French,  preferably  simple 
prose,  be  carefully  memorized  the  first  year.  Later,  selec- 
tions may  be  made  for  their  literary  interest. 

Most  teachers  know  how  they  prefer  to  teach  the  rudi- 
ments of  grammar  in  a  given  class.  We  may  remark, 
however,  that  it  is  not  for  the  secondary  school  to  spend 
time  over  the  many  pages  of  exceptions,  peculiarities  in 
gender  and  number,  idioms  that  one  rarely  sees  and  never 
thinks  of  using,  and  grammatical  puzzles  for  which  each 
learned  grammarian  has  a  different  solution,  that  form  so 
large  a  part  of  some  grammars.  The  great  universals, 
however  (the  regular  and  the  common  irregular  verbs; 
negative  and  interrogative  variations ;  the  common  use  and 
meaning  of  moods  and  tenses ;  the  personal  pronouns  and 
their  position ;  the  general  principles  governing  the  agree- 
ment of  adjectives,  pronouns,  and  participles ;  the  partitive 
constructions;  the  possessives,  demonstratives,  interroga- 
tives,  and  relatives;  the  most  common  adverbs,  conjunc- 
tions, and  prepositions),  should  all  be  thoroughly  under- 
stood by  the  end  of  the  second  year  of  high-school  study, 
and  subsequent  study  should  give  considerable  facility  in 
using  them. 

The  verb  seems  most  formidable;  but  when  it  is  per- 
ceived that  most  forms  of  all  verbs  may  be  treated  as 
identically  derived  from  the  "  primitive  tenses,"  the  dif- 
ficulties appear  less  numerous,  and  when  the  principle 
of  stem  differentiation  under  the  influence  of  tonic  accent, 


8O  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  TWELVE  OF 

persisting  in  the  older  and  more  common  verbs,  is  a  littta 
understoood,  the  number  of  really  unique  forms  is  incon- 
siderable. 

Translating  into  English  should  mean  giving  in  well- 
chosen  language  the  exact  thought  and  spirit  of  the  orig- 
inal. Thus  understood,  it  is  extremely  difficult  and  should 
never  be  attempted  by  the  pupil  before  the  meaning  of 
the  original  is  clear  to  him.  It  is  then  rather  an  exercise 
in  English  than  in  French.  Nothing  should  be  accepted 
as  English  which  is  not  English.  The  teacher  who  com- 
placently listens  while  a  pupil  turns  good  French  into  bad 
English  is,  to  put  it  mildly,  not  doing  his  duty.  Translat- 
ing into  English  is  often  the  most  rapid  means  of  ascer- 
taining whether  the  pupil  has  correctly  understood  the 
French  read,  but  a  few  well-chosen  questions  asked  and 
answered  in  French,  or  an  abstract  in  the  same  language, 
is  often  equally  effective  as  a  test,  and  far  better  as  train- 
ing in  French. 

Just  as  English  should  be  English,  French  should  be 
French  and  merely  using  French  words  and  conforming  to 
grammatical  rules  do  not  make  a  sentence  French.  At 
first,  sentences  formed  by  pupils  should  exactly  follow 
French  model  sentences,  being  either  verbatim  reproduc- 
tions or  differing  only  in  simple  and  immaterial  verbal 
changes.  Not  until  the  pupil,  by  much  assimilation  of 
French  models,  has  become  imbued  with  the  form  and 
spirit  of  the  language,  can  he  be  safely  left  to  his  own  in- 
vention. In  choosing  reading  matter,  the  tendency  is  to 
select  something  too  hard.  The  teacher  adopts  a  book  be- 
cause it  is  world-renowned,  because  it  interests  him  per- 
sonally, because  it  teaches  a  valuable  lesson,  moral  or 
historical.  While  all  pedagogical  roads  should  lead  to  the 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  ASSOCIATION  OF  AMERICA        8l 

Rome  of  a  broad  culture,  the  attempt  to  teach  literature, 
aesthetics,  history  or  morality  from  a  work  in  which  lin- 
guistic difficulties  dismay  the  pupil  and  engross  his  atten- 
tion, can  only  end  in  making  him  detest  both  the  book  and 
its  lessons.  The  beginner  in  French  can  be  taught  these 
things  best  in  the  vernacular ;  while  searching  a  dictionary 
to  discover  whether  fut  comes  from  faire  or  from  fdloir, 
he  has  little  leisure  to  think  of  the  relative  merits  of  literary 
schools.  Give  him  at  first  the  easiest  reading  attainable, 
remembering  that  simple  language  does  not  mean  infantile 
conceptions  nor  vice  versa.  Entertain  no  thought  of 
teaching  literature  until  the  pupil  is  quite  familiar  with 
ordinary  prose  and  can  read  page  after  page  of  the  text 
assigned  with  no  great  need  of  grammar  or  dictionary. 
The  classics  of  dramatic  literature  may  very  properly  be 
postponed  until  the  fourth  year,  and  we  do  not  consider 
them  always  desirable  even  then;  but  a  few  have  been 
given  among  texts  suitable  for  the  third  year  in  the  hope 
that  these  rather  than  others  will  be  selected  by  teachers 
who,  for  reasons  of  their  own,  choose  to  read  something 
of  the  kind  at  this  stage  of  the  course. 

The  reading  lists  are  meant  to  be  illustrative  simply 
not  exhaustive.  Other  texts  equally  good  might  no  doubt 
be  mentioned  under  each  head.  The  answers  to  the  com- 
mittee's circulars  indicate  clearly  that  teachers  would  not 
welcome  a  narrow  range  of  prescribed  reading,  such  as 
teachers  of  Latin  have  in  their  Caesar,  Cicero,  and  Virgil. 
A  definite  curriculum  of  that  kind  would  no  doubt  have 
its  advantages,  but  in  the  case  of  the  modern  languages 
it  is  not  practicable  and,  upon  the  whole,  not  desirable. 
The  disadvantages  would  far  outweigh  the  advantages. 
The  mass  of  available  literature  is  so  great,  the  preferences 


82 

of  teachers  and  the  needs  of  classes  so  divergent,  that  the 
only  safe  course  is  to  leave  a  large  latitude  of  choice.  This 
being  so,  it  has  seemed  best  merely  to  give  examples  of  the 
kind  of  reading  appropriate  to  each  year. 

SECTION  XI 

THE  INTERMEDIATE  COURSE  IN  FRENCH 
(a)  THE  AIM  OF  THE  INSTRUCTION 

At  the  end  of  the  intermediate  course  the  pupil  should  be 
able  to  read  at  sight  ordinary  French  prose  or  simple 
poetry,  to  translate  into  French  a  connected  passage  of 
English  based  on  the  text  read,  and  to  answer  questions  in- 
volving a  more  thorough  knowledge  of  syntax  than  is  ex- 
pected in  the  elementary  course. 

(&)    THE  WORK  TO  BE  DONE 

This  should  comprise  the  reading  of  from  400  to  600 
pages  of  French  of  ordinary  difficulty,  a  portion  to  be  in 
the  dramatic  form;  constant  practice  in  giving  French 
paraphrases,  abstracts,  or  reproductions  from  memory  of 
selected  portions  of  the  matter  read ;  the  study  of  a  gram- 
mar of  moderate  completeness;  writing  from  dictation. 

Suitable  texts  are:  About's  stories;  Augier  and  San- 
deau's  Le  Gendre  de  M.  Poirier;  Beranger's  poems ;  Cor- 
neille's  Le  Cid  and  Horace;  Coppee's  poems;  Daudet's 
La  belle-Nivernaise ;  La  Brete's  Mon  Oncle  et  mon  cure; 
Madame  de  Sevigne's  letters;  Hugo's  Hernani  and  La 
Chute;  Labiche's  plays;  Loti's  Pecheur  d'Islande;  Mig- 
tiet's  historical  writings ;  Moliere's  L'Avare  and  Le  Bour- 
geois gentilhomme;  Racine's  Athalie,  Andromaque,  and 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  ASSOCIATION  OF  AMERICA        83 

Esther;  George  Sand's  plays  and  stories;  Sandeau's 
Mademoiselle  de  la  Seigliere;  Scribe's  plays;  Thierry's 
Recits  des  Temps  merovingiens ;  Thiers's  L'Expedition  de 
Bonaparte  en  Egypte;  Vigny's  La  canne  de  jonc;  Vol- 
taire's historical  writings. 

SECTION  XII 

THE  ADVANCED  COURSE  IN  FRENCH 
(a)  THE  AIM  OF  THE  INSTRUCTION 

At  the  end  of  the  advanced  course  the  pupil  should  be 
able  to  read  at  sight,  with  the  help  of  a  vocabulary  of 
special  or  technical  expressions,  difficult  French  not  earlier 
than  that  of  the  seventeenth  century ;  to  write  in  French  a 
short  essay  on  some  simple  subject  connected  with  the 
works  read ;  to  put  into  French  a  passage  of  easy  English 
prose,  and  to  carry  on  a  simple  conversation  in  French. 

(&)    THE  WORK  TO  BE  DONE 

This  should  comprise  the  reading  of  from  600  to  1,000 
pages  of  standard  French,  classical  and  modern,  only  dif- 
ficult passages  being  explained  in  the  class;  the  writing 
of  numerous  short  themes  in  French ;  the  study  of  syntax. 

Suitable  reading  matter  will  be :  Beaumarchais's  Barbier 
de  Seville;  Corneille's  dramas;  the  elder  Dumas's  prose 
writings;  the  younger  Dumas's  La  Question  d 'argent; 
Hugo's  Ruy  Bias,  lyrics,  and  prose  writings;  La  Fon- 
taine's fables;  Lamartine's  Graziella;  Marivaux's  plays; 
Moliere's  plays;  Musset's  plays  and  poems;  Pellissier's 
Mouvement  littcraire  au  XIXe  siecle;  Kenan's  Souvenirs 
d'enfance  et  de  jeunesse;  Rousseau's  writings;  Sainte- 


84 

Beuve's  essays;  Taine's  Origines  de  la  France  content' 
poraine;  Voltaire's  writings;  selections  from  Zola,  Mau- 
passant, and  Balzac. 

SECTION  XIII 

SPECIMEN    EXAMINATION    PAPERS    FOR   ADMISSION    TO 
COLLEGE 

The  complaint  is  sometimes  heard  from  teachers  in  the 
secondary  schools — and  investigation  shows  it  to  be  not 
altogether  groundless — that  even  at  colleges  having  the 
same  or  very  similar  requirements  for  admission  the  en- 
trance examinations  are  apt  to  differ  not  a  little  in  respect 
to  difficulty  and  in  respect  to  the  general  character  of  the 
questions  asked.  To  a  certain  extent  this  lack  of  uniform- 
ity is  inevitable.  With  the  best  intentions  examiners  will 
differ  more  or  less  in  their  estimate  of  difficulty  and  in 
their  choice  of  test  questions.  Some  will  prefer  to  set  a 
more  difficult  paper  and  mark  liberally;  others  to  set  an 
easier  paper  and  mark  more  closely.  The  only  obvious 
way  to  bring  about  uniformity  in  the  papers  set  would  be 
to  intrust  the  preparation  of  them  each  year  to  a  central 
committee  or  bureau  (say  of  the  Modern  Language  As- 
sociation), which  should  furnish  them  on  demand,  in 
sealed  packages  and  at  a  fixed  rate,  to  such  colleges  as 
might  wish  to  receive  them.  Such  a  plan  would  clearly 
have  much  in  its  favor.  Under  its  operation  there  would 
be  no  room  for  criticism  of  particular  colleges.  The  pa- 
pers would  presumably  be  prepared  with  very  great  care ; 
they  would  improve  in  the  light  of  criticism,  would  fur- 
nish teachers  with  a  pattern  to  work  by,  and  so  could 
hardly  fail  to  make  for  greater  excellence  and  uniformity 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  ASSOCIATION  OF  AMERICA       8$ 

in  the  work  of  our  secondary  schools.  The  feasibility  of 
such  a  plan  would  depend  largely  upon  the  attitude  of 
the  colleges,  and  whether  it  would  work  well  in  practice 
could  only  be  determined  by  trial.  Difficulties  of  one  kind 
and  another  would  no  doubt  arise,  but  they  do  not  appear 
in  advance  to  be  insuperable.  At  any  rate,  the  plan  seems 
worthy  of  serious  consideration. 

Meanwhile,  without  wishing  to  imply  an  exclusive  pref- 
erence for  a  written  as  opposed  to  an  oral  test  (the  best 
plan,  wherever  practicable,  is  undoubtedly  a  combination 
of  the  two),  the  committee  have  thought  it  appropriate 
to  close  this  report  with  a  series  of  papers  designed  to 
illustrate  in  a  general  way  the  kind  of  test  which,  in  our 
opinion,  the  candidate  for  admission  to  college  may  rea- 
sonably be  expected  to  pass  upon  completing  any  of  the 
courses  above  described.  The  papers  are  by  no  means 
offered  as  perfect  models  for  imitation,  but  as  an  approxi- 
mate indication  of  what,  in  our  judgment,  the  college  en- 
trance examination  should  be.  The  time  required  is  es- 
timated in  each  case  at  about  two  hours.  Unless  the  con- 
trary is  expressly  stated,  the  texts  are  not  supposed  to 
have  been  previously  studied  by  the  candidate. 

A. ELEMENTARY  FRENCH 

I.  Translate  into  English : 

(a)  Lui,  penche  sur  sa  chaise,  regardait  dans  la  cheminee,  les 
yeux  fixes.  Et  tout  a  coup,  comme  on  se  taisait,  il  se  tourna  de 
mon  cote  et  me  dit  d'un  ton  de  bonne  humeur: 

Void  bientot  le  printemps,  monsieur  Florence,  nous  ferons  en- 
core plus  d'un  bon  tour  dans  la  montagne;  j'espere  que  cette 
annee  vous  viendrez  plus  souvent,  car  vous  avez  beau  dire,  vous 
aimez  ce  pays  autant  que  moi  .  .  . 

He !  je  ne  dis  pas  le  contraire,  Georges;  mais  a  ton  age,  dans  ta 


86  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  TWELVE  OF 

position  .  .  .  Enfin  laissons  cela  .  .  .  Et  puisque  tu  restes, 
eh  bien,  oui,  tu  as  raison,  nous  irons  plus  souvent  nous  promener 
ensemble  dans  la  montagne;  je  suis  tou jours  content  d'etre  avec 
toi. 

A  la  bonne  heure,  dit-il  en  riant,  voila  ce  qui  s'appelle  parler. 

Et  durant  plus  d'une  demi-heure,  la  conversation  roula  sur  les 
fleurs  de  nos  montagnes,  sur  la  belle  vallee  de  la  Sarre-Rouge,  etc. 
On  aurait  cru  que  rien  d'extraordinaire  ne  s' etait  dit. — ERCK- 
MANN-CHATRIAN. 

(b)  Le  temps  etait  sombre,  il  tombait  une  petite  pluie  de  brouil- 
lard  qui  epaississait  encore  Tobscurite,  les  bees  de  gaz  brulaient 
mal,  et  leur  lumiere,  reflechie  par  les  flaques  d'eau,  eclairait  la  rue 
deserte  d'une  fagon  incertaine  et  changeante.    Le  jeune  homme 
marchait  rapidement,  son  parapluie  baisse  en  avant  pour  s'abriter 
de  la  pluie  qui  lui  frappait  dans  la  figure.     Tout  a  coup,  sans  qu'il 
les  cut  vus  venir  ou  sortir  d'une  embrasure  de  porte,  il  se  trouva 
en  face  de  deux  hommes  et,  surpris  de  cette  brusque  apparition, 
il  sauta  de  cote  par  un  mouvement  instinctif  et  nerveux.    II  etait  a 
ce  moment  a  une  centaine  de  metres  de  chez  lui,  a  1'encoignure 
d'une  ruelle  qui  descend  vers  la  rue  de  Charenton. — MALOT. 

(c)  Un  jeune  homme  plein  de  passions,  assis  sur  la  bouche  d'un 
volcan,  et  pleurant  sur  les  mortels  dont  a  peine  il  voyait  a  ses  pieds 
les  demeures,  n'est  sans  doute,  6  vieillards!   qu'un  objet  digne  de 
votre  pitie ;  mais  quoi  que  vous  puissiez  penser  de  Rene,  ce  tableau 
vous  offre  1'image  de  son  caractere  et  de  son  existence :   c'est  ainsi 
que  toute  ma  vie  j'ai  eu  devant  les  yeux  une  creation  a  la  fois 
immense  et  imperceptible,  et  un  abime  ouvert  a  mes  cotes. — CHAT- 
EAUBRIAND. 

II.  (a)  Write  the  five  principal  parts  of  the  three 
verbs  (the  forms  here  given  occur  in  I,  &)  :  vus,  sortir,  de- 
scend. 

(&)  Write  a  synopsis  of  the  conjugation  (first  person 
singular  of  each  tense)  of  se  rejouir  and  savoir. 

(c)  Write  the  inflection  of:  the  present  indicative  of 
boire  and  faire;  the  future  of  pouvoir;  the  present  sub- 
junctive of  prendre. 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  ASSOCIATION  OF  AMERICA       87 

(d)  Write  the  forms  of  the  demonstrative  pronouns. 

(e)  In  what  ways  may  the  use  of  the  passive  voice  be 
avoided  in  French? 

III.  Translate  into  English : 

(a)  Here  is  the  pen,  shall  I  send  it  to  her?    No;  do  not  send  it 
to  her ;  give  it  to  me. 

(b)  Cats  and  dogs  are  domestic  animals. 

(c)  You  must  give  them  some  white  bread  and  good  coffee,  if 
they  have  none. 

(d)  The  old  man  is  very  well  this  evening,  although  he  has 
worked  all  day. 

(e)  We  have  just  searched  for  your  gloves,  but  we  do  not  find 
them  in  the  room  where  you  left  them  a  quarter  of  an  hour  ago. 

(f)  Why  do  we  weep  for  mortals  whose  life  and  character  we 
scarcely  know?    We  always  have  them  before  our  eyes.    What- 
ever we  may  think  of  them,  they  are  surely  worthy  of  our  pity. 
(See  I,  c.) 

B. INTERMEDIATE   FRENCH 

I.  Translate  into  English: 

(a)  Nulle  part;  a  aucune  epoque  de  ma  vie,  je  n'ai  vecu  aussi 
completement  seul.  La  maison  etait  loin  de  la  route,  dans  les 
terres,  ecartee  meme  de  la  ferme  dependante  dont  les  bruits  ne 
m'arrivaient  pas.  Deux  fois  par  jour,  la  femme  du  fermier  me 
servait  mon  repas,  a  un  bout  de  la  vaste  salle  a  manger  dont  toutes 
les  fenetres,  moins  une,  tenaient  leur  volets  clos.  Cette  Provenc.ale 
noire,  le  nez  ecrase  comme  un  Cafre,  ne  comprenant  pas  quelle 
etrange  besogne  m'avait  amene  a  la  campagne  en  plein  hiver, 
gardait  de  moi  une  mefiance  et  une  terreur,  posait  les  plats  a  la 
hate,  se  sauvait  sans  un  mot,  en  evitant  de  tourner  la  tete.  Et 
c'est  le  seul  visage  que  j'aie  vu  pendant  cette  existence,  distraite 
uniquement,  vers  le  soir,  par  une  promenade  dans  une  allee  de 
hauts  platanes,  a  la  tristesse  d'un  soleil  froid  et  rouge  dont  les 
grenouilles  saluaient  le  coucher  hatif  de  leurs  discordantes  clam- 
eurs. — DAUDET. 


88  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  TWELVE  OF 


(b)  Amis,  loin  de  la  ville, 
Loin  des  palais  de  rpi, 
Loin  de  la  cour  servile, 
Loin  de  la  foule  vile, 
Trouvez-moi,  trouvez-moi, 

Aux  champs  ou  1'ame  oisive 
Se  recueille  en  revant; 
Sur  une  obscure  rive 
Ou  du  monde  n'arrive 
Ni  le  flot,  ni  le  vent, 


Quelque  asile  sauvage, 
Quelque  abri  d'autrefois, 
Un  port  sur  le  rivage, 
Un  nid  sous  le  feuillage, 
Un  manoir  dans  les  bois ! 

Bien  calme,  bien  dormant, 
Trouvez-le  moi  bien  sombre, 
Couvert  d'arbres  sans  nombre, 
Dans  le  silence  et  I'ombre 
Cache  profondement ! 

—V.  HUGO. 


(c)  DENISE.    Fernand? 

FERNAND.    Qu'est-ce  que  tu  veux? 

DENISE.  Ou  as-tu  mis  le  livre  que  tu  as  etc  chercher  pour 
mademoiselle  de  Bardannes? 

FERNAND.    La,  sur  la  table.    Est-ce  qu'elle  est  deja  prete? 

DENISE.  Pas  encore,  mais  elle  acheve  de  s'habiller.  Elle  prend 
le  livre  sur  la  table. 

ANDRE,  entrant,  a  Denise.  Je  n'ai  pas  pu  vous  demander  tout  a 
1'heure,  devant  tout  ce  monde,  mademoiselle,  si  vous  etes  tout  a 
fait  remise  de  votre  indisposition  d'hier  qui  vous  a  empechee  de 
diner  avec  les  amis  qui  me  sont  arrives,  dont  deux  sont  deja  des 
votres.  J'espere  que  ce  soir  j'aurai  le  plaisir  et  1'honneur  de  vous 
voir  a  notre  table,  ainsi  que  monsieur  et  madame  Brissot. 

DENISE.  Oui,  monsieur,  ma  mere  m'a  deja  fait  part  de  votre 
aimable  invitation. 

FERNAND,  a  Andre.  Et  moi,  je  vais  monter  un  peu  d'avance  le 
cheval  de  ta  sceur  pour  le  bien  mettre  a  sa  main ;  montes-tu  avec 
nous? 

ANDR£.  Non,  nous  avons  une  inspection  a  faire  avec  M.  Thou- 
venin. 

FERNAND.    A  tantot,  alors. 

II.  (a)  Write  a  synopsis,  in  the  first  person  singular, 
including  infinitive,  participles,  and  imperative  singular, 
of  the  five  verbs  (see  I,  a)  :  vecu,  tenaient,  comprenant* 
aniene,  vu. 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  ASSOCIATION  OF  AMERICA       89 

(6)  What  are  the  general  principles  governing  the  use 
of  the  indicative,  conditional,  and  subjunctive  moods? 

III.  Translate  into  French: 

Tell  me,  what  has  kept  you  from  selling  that  old  house,  the 
shutters  of  which  always  remain  closed?  It  is  quite  alone;  at 
night  one  hears  strange  noises  in  it;  and  little  boys  who  have  to 
pass  near  it  run  away  without  looking  at  it.  I  am  sorry  you  did 
not  sell  it  to  M.  Andre  when  you  sold  him  your  farm  and  your 
brother's.  You  will  do  well  to  accept  what  M.  Andre  has  offered 
you  for  it;  and  I  wish  you  to  go  and  see  him  this  very  evening. 

C. — ADVANCED  FRENCH 

I.  Translate  into  English : 

(a)  Tous  ces  dons  sont  communs  aux  orateurs ;   on  les  retrouve 
avec  des  proportions  et  des  degres  differents  chez  des  hommes 
comme    Ciceron    et    Tite-Live,    comme    Bourdaloue    et    Bossuet, 
comme  Fox  et  Burke.     Ces  beaux  et  solides  esprits  forment  une 
famille  naturelle,  et  les  uns  comme  les  autres  ont  pour  trait  prin- 
cipal 1'habitude  et  le  talent  de  passer  des  idees  particulieres  aux 
idees  generates,  avec  ordre  et  avec  suite,  comme  on  monte  un  es- 
calier  en  posant  le  pied  tour  a  tour  sur  chaque  degre.     L'incon- 
venient  de  cet  art,  c'est  1'emploi  du  lieu  commun.     Les  hommes 
qui  le  pratiquent  ne  peignent  pas  les  objets  avec  precision,  ils  torn- 
bent  aisement  dans  la  rhetorique  vague.     Ils  ont  en  main  des 
developpements  tout  faits,  sorte  d'echelles  portatives  qui  s'appli- 
quent  egalement  bien  sur  les  deux  faces  contraires  de  la  meme 
question  et  de  toute  question. — TAINE. 

(b)  Les  regies  generates  ne  sont  que  des  expedients  mesquins 
pour  suppleer  a  1'absence  du  grand  sens  moral,  qui  suffit  a  lui  seul 
pour  reveler  en  toute  occasion  a  1'homme  ce  qui  est  le  plus  beau. 
C'est  vouloir  suppleer  par  des  instructions  preparees  d'avance  a  la 
spontaneite  intime.    La  variete   des  cas  dejoue  sans  cesse  toutes 
les  previsions.     Rien,  rien  ne  remplace  1'ame :    aucun  renseigne- 
ment  ne  saurait  suppleer  chez  I'homme  a  1'inspiration  de  sa  nature. 
"-RENAN. 


9O  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  TWELVE  OF 

(c)  Phedre,  si  ton  chasseur  avait  autant  de  charmes 
Qu'en  donne  a  son  visage  un  si  docte  pinceau, 
Ta  passion  fut  juste  et  merite  des  larmes 
Pour  plaindre  le  malheur  qui  le  met  au  tombeau. 

Et  si  tu  parus  lors  avec  autant  de  grace 
Qu'en  ces  vers  eclatants  qui  te  rendent  le  jour, 

Estime  qui  voudra  son  courage  de  glace, 
Sa  froideur  fut  un  crime,  et  non  pas  ton  amour. 

Aussi,  quoi  qu'on  ait  dit  du  courroux  de  Thesee, 
Sa  mort  n'est  pas  1'effet  de  son  ressentiment, 

Mais  les  Dieux  1'ont  puni  pour  t' avoir  meprisee, 
Et  fait  de  son  trepas  un  juste  chatiment. 

— CORNEDLLE. 

(d)  Du  Dieu  qui  nous  crea  la  clemence  infinie, 
Pour  adoucir  les  maux  de  cette  courte  vie, 
A  place  parmi  nous  deux  etres  bienfaisants, 
De  la  terre  a  jamais  aimables  habitants, 
Soutiens  dans  les  travaux,  tresors  dans  1'indigence, 
L'un  est  le  doux  sommeil,  et  1'autre  est  1'esperance: 
L'un,  quand  l'homme  accable  sent  de  son  faible  corps 
Les  organes  vaincus  sans  force  et  sans  ressorts, 
Vient  par  un  calme  heureux  secourir  la  nature 
Et  lui  porter  1'oubli  des  peines  qu'elle  endure; 
L'autre  anime  nos  cceurs,  enflamme  nos  desirs, 
Et  meme  en  nous  trompant,  donne  de  vrais  plaisirs; 
Mais  aux  mortels  cheris  a  qui  le  ciel  1'envoie 
Elle  n'inspire  point  une  infidele  joie; 
Elle  apporte  de  Dieu  la  promesse  et  1'appui ; 
Elle  est  inebranlable,  et  pure  comme  lui. 

— VOLTAIRE. 

II.  (a)  Explain  the  two  cases  of  subjunctive  that  oc- 
cur in  I  (c). 

(&)  Point  out  two  cases  of  poetic  inversion  in  I  (d). 
(c)  Define  amiable  as  used  in  classic  poetry  and  as  used 
in  modern  prose. 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  ASSOCIATION  OF  AMERICA       QI 

III.  Write  fifteen  or  twenty  lines  of  French  about  the 
author  of  one  of  the  preceding  selections,  or  about  one  of 

the  persons  mentioned  in  I  (a). 

/ 

IV.  Translate  into  French: 

The  following  day,  at  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  they  came 
to  Surgeres.  The  cardinal  was  waiting  there  for  Louis  XIII.  The 
minister  and  the  King  exchanged  many  affectionate  greetings, 
and  congratulated  each  other  on  the  lucky  chance  that  had  rid 
France  of  the  relentless  enemy  who  was  stirring  up  Europe  against 
her.  Thereupon  the  cardinal,  having  been  informed  by  Rochefort 
that  D'Artagnan  had  been  arrested,  and  being  eager  to  see  him, 
took  leave  of  the  King,  and  returned  to  the  house  he  occupied, 
near  the  bridge  of  La  Pierre,  There  he  found  D'Artagnan  stand- 
ing without  a  sword  before  the  door,  and  the  three  guardsmen 
armed. 

D. — ELEMENTARY  GERMAN 

I.  Translate  into  English: 

(a)  Ich  folgte  sogleich  dem  Boten,  und  er  fiihrte  mich  in  ein 
kleines  Zimmer,  das  seiner  schlechten  Einrichtung1  nach  zu  den 
billigsten  des  Gasthauses  gehoren  muszte.  Auf  einem  Bette  lag 
eine  schone,  junge  Frau  mit  geschlossenen  Augen  und  toten- 
bleichen,*  aber  edlen  und  feinen  Ziigen.  Ein  Dienstmadchen  war 
mitleidig  um  sie  bemiiht,8  und  neben  ihr  im  Bette  sasz  ein  etwa 
dreijahriges,  blondlockiges  Biibchen,  jammerlich*  weinend  und 
seine  Mutter  mit  den  siiszesten  Namen  rufend  und  flehentlich5 
bittend,  sie  mochte  doch  die  Augen  aufmachen  und  ihn  wieder 
lieb  haben.  Ich  hob  den  kleinen  Burschen  vom  Bett  herunter  und 
setzte  ihn  auf  den  Boden  nieder.  Er  blieb  auch  ruhig  sitzen,  seine 
groszen,  blauen  Augen  unverwandt"  auf  die  Mutter  gerichtet. 
Meine  Bemiihungen,  deise  wieder  zum  Bewusztsein7  zu  bringen, 
wurden  bald  mit  Erfolg  belohnt.  Die  Frau  atmete  schwer  und 
schlug  die  Augen  auf,  aber  sie  war  zu  schwach  um  auf  meine 


92  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  TWELVE  OF 

Fragen  vernehmlich8  antworten  zu  konnen. — Adapted  from  HEL- 
ENE  STOKL. 

1  Einrichtung,  equipment,  furnishings.  "  Bleich,  pale.  *  Be- 
miiht,  occupied.  *  Jammerlich,  piteously.  "  Flehentlich,  im- 
ploringly. "  Unverwandt,  incessantly.  7  Bewusztsein,  conscious- 
ness. 8  Vernehmlich,  audibly. 

(b)  Waldgegend.  Vorn  rechts  ein  altertumliches1  Gebdude;  vor 
demselben  ein  Tisch  mit  Stiihlen  und  einer  Bank,  unter  einem 
Baume;  links  ein  Thor;  im  Hintergrunde  eine  Mauer.  Vor  der- 
selben  eine  Anhohe* 

1  Altertumlich,  ancient-looking.    *  Anhohe,  elevation. 

HEDWIG,  singt.    Wenn   ich  ein  Voglein  war' 
Und  auch  zwei  Fluglein  hatt', 

URSULA,  kommt  mit  Fruhstuck,  das  sie  auf  den  Tisch  stellt. 
Du  bist  ja  schon  friih  bei  der  Hand,  mein  Kind. 

HEDWIG.  Sagst  du  nicht  immer:  Morgenstund'  hat  Gold  im 
Mund? 

URSULA.  Das  ist  schon  recht,  dasz  du  mit  der  Lerche  auffliegst, 
aber  die  Vogel,  die  zu  friih  singen,  holt  am  Abend  die  Katze. 

HEDWIG.  Soil  ich  eine  Lerche  sein,  dann  musz  ich  auch  mein 
Lied  fur  mich  haben. 

URSULA.    Das  Lied  paszt  nur  nicht  an  diesen  Ort. 

HEDWIG.  Aber  es  paszt  zu  meinem  Herzen.  Ja,  alte  Ursula,  ich 
wiinschte,  dasz  ich  ein  Voglein  war',  und  auch  zwei  Fliigel  hatt'. 

URSULA.    Und  wo  sollte  es  dann  hinaus? 

HEDWIG.  Weit,  weit  weg!  Uber  die  Mauer,  iiber  die  Baume, 
iiber  den  Wald,  tiber  das  Feld — in  die  feme,  schone  Gotteswelt ! 

— KONIGSWINTER. 

II.  (a)  Give  the  nominative  and  genitive  singular 
(with  the  definite  article)  and  the  nominative  plural  of 
Boten,  Fusse,  Zimmer,  Einrichtung,  Houses,  Bette,  Frau. 
Auge,  Zugen,  Mutter,  Fragen,  Gestalt. 

(6)  Decline  throughout  the  German  phrases  meaning 
the  new  house,  my  dear  friend. 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  ASSOCIATION  OF  AMERICA       93 

(c)  Give  the  principal  parts  of  muszte,  lag,  geschlossen, 
rufend,  bittend,  mochte,  aufmachen,  hob  herunter,  blieb, 
sitsen,  bringen,  schlug  auf,  konnen. 

(d)  Give  the  third  person  singular,  of  each  tense  in  the 
indicative  mode,  of  bittend,  blieb,  schlug  auf. 

(e)  What  case  is  governed  by  each  of  the  prepositions: 
Auf,  aus,-  bei,  durch,  fur,  in,  mit,  iiber,  urn,  von,  wegen,  su. 

III.  Translate  into  German : 

(a)  Who  is  that  old  gentleman  with  the  white  beard?1    Surely 
I  have  seen  him  somewhere.2 

(b)  So  this  is  your  new  house.    What  a  lovely  view*  from  this 
window !    But  I  do  not  see  the  old  castle4  of  which  you  told  me  in 
your  letter. 

(c)  He  has  lived  two  whole  years  in  Germany,  and  has  just 
returned.    He  speaks  German  pretty  well,  but  does  not  seem  to 
have  read  much. 

(d)  I  will  do  the  best  I  can,  but  you  must  not  expect  too  much. 
Perhaps  it  would  be  better  if  you  should  go  to  him  yourself. 

(e)  Come  now,  Hedwig,  and  eat  your  breakfast.    You  are  not  a 
bird  and  can  not  fly.    And,  after  all,8  is  it  not  better  to  be  a  pretty 
girl  than  a  stupid8  bird? 

1  Beard,  der  Bart.  *  Somewhere,  irgendwo.  *  View,  die  Aus- 
sicht.  *  Castle,  das  Schloss.  6  After  all,  am  Ende.  'Stupid, 
dumm. 

E. — INTERMEDIATE  GERMAN 

I.  Translate  into  English : 

(a)  Die  Wohnungen  in  den  Badern  von  L.  sind  entweder  unten 
in  einem  Dorf,  das  von  hohen  Bergen  umschlossen  ist,  oder  sie 
liegen  auf  einem  dieser  Berge  selbst,  unfern  der  Hauptquelle,  wo 
eine  pittoreske  Hausergruppe  in  das  reizende  Thai  hinabschaut. 
Einige  aber  liegen  auch  einzeln  zerstreut  an  den  Bergesabhangen, 
und  man  musz  miihsam  hinaufkommen  durch  Weinreben,  Myr- 
tengestrauch,  Lorbeerbiische  und  andere  vornehme  Blumen  und 


94  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  TWELVE  OF 

Pflanzen,  ein  wildes  Paradies.  Ich  habe  nie  ein  reizenderes  Thai 
gesehen,  besonders  wenn  man  von  der  Terasse  des  oberen  Bades, 
wo  die  ernstgriinen  Cypressen  stehen,  ins  Dorf  hinabschaut.  Man 
sieht  dort  die  Brucke,  die  iiber  ein  Fliisschen  fiihrt,  welches  L. 
heiszt,  und,  das  Dorf  in  zwei  Teile  durchschneidend,  ein  Gerausch 
hervorbringt,  als  wolle  es  die  angenehmsten  Dinge  sagen,  und 
konne  vor  dem  allseitig  plaudernden  Echo  nicht  zu  Worte  kom- 
men. — HEINE. 

(b)  Bernhard  schritt  durch  enge  Gassen  nach  dem  Markte,  er 
fand  die  Straszen  voll  von  geschaftigen  Menschen,  die  den  Frem- 
dling  neugierig  und  forschend  ansahen,  viele  unter  ihnen  in  man- 
gelhafter  Bekleidung,  mit  bleichen  und  vergramten  Gesichtern. 
Auch  die  Hauser  waren  mit  Einliegern1  iiberfullt,  noch  in  den 
Dachfenstern  guckten  Kinderkopfe  und  hing  die  Wasche  armer 
Leute.  Aus  den  engen  Hofen  horte  er  Gebriill  der  Kinder  und 
neben  den  Hunden  liefen  grunzende  Schweine  vor  den  Haus- 
thviren.  Denn  viele  Landleute  waren  nach  der  Stadt  gefliichtet 
und  hausten  mit  ihrem  Vieh  gedrangt  in  jammerlichen  Wohnun- 
gen.  Auch  der  Marktplatz  war  mit  Bretterbuden  und  Leinwand- 
zelten2  besetzt,  an  welchen  armselige  Frauen  wuschen  und  kochten 
und  halbnackte  Kinder  auf  den  Steinen  spielten. — FREYTAG. 

'Einlieger,  lodger.    *  Leinwandzelt,  canvas  tent. 

(c)1  GESSLER. 

Nun,  Tell !  weil,  du  den  Apfel  triffst  vom  Baume 
Auf  hundert  Schritt,  so  wirst  du  deine  Kunst 
Vor  mir  bewahren  miissen.    Nimm  die  Armbrust — 
Du  hast  sie  gleich  zur  Hand — und  mach  dich  fertig, 
Einen  Apfel  von  des  Knaben  Kopf  zu  schieszen — 
Doch,  will  ich  raten,  ziele  gut,  dasz  du 
Den  Apfel  treffest  auf  den  ersten  Schusz ! 
Denn  fehlst  du  ihn,  so  ist  dein  Kopf  veloren. 
[Alle  geben  Zeichen  des  Schreckens.} 

1  The  candidate  is  here  supposed  to  have  read  Schiller's  Tell. 
If  he  has  not,  passage  (c)  should  be  replaced  by  another,  taken 
from  a  classic  previously  studied. 


Herr,  welches  Ungeheure  sinnet  Ihr 
Mir  an  ? — Ich  soil  vom  Haupte  meines  Kindes — 
Nein,  nein  doch,  lieber  Herr,  das  kommt  Euch  nicht 
Zu  Sinn. — Verhiit's  der  gnad'ge  Gott. — Das  konnt  Ihr 
Im  Ernst  von  einem  Vater  nicht  begehren ! 

II.  (a)   Compare  the  adjectives  alt,  kurz,  bedeutend, 
wild,  dunkel,  hoch,  ober,  erst,  deutsch,  ganz. 

(&)  Explain  the  use  of  sein  and  haben  as  auxiliaries  of 
tense,  and  put  into  German :  ( i )  The  boy  has  fallen  into 
the  water;  (2)  he  has  traveled  much,  but  seen  little;  (3) 
I  have  remained  too  long;  (4)  I  have  been  sitting  in  my 
room  all  day  5(5)  you  have  slept  two  hours ;  (6)  the  child 
has  fallen  asleep.  * 

(c)  How  do  the  modal  auxiliaries  differ  in  conjugation 
from  ordinary  w.eak  verbs,  and  how  from  strong  verbs? 
Put  into  German:  (i)  I  will  tell  you  something;  (2)  we 
can  not  go ;  (3)  he  had  to  stay  at  home ;  (4)  I  should  like 
to  know;  (5)  she  will  not  be  permitted  to  come;  (6)  I 
have  not  been  able  to  see  him. 

(d)  In  passage  (c)  explain  (i)  the  plural  Schritt;  (2) 
the  subjunctive  treffest;  (3)  the  use  of  the  article  in  des 
Schreckens. 

1  Fall  asleep,  einschlafen. 

III.  Translate  into  German : 

There  was  once  an  old  goat1  that  had  seven  kids.*  One  day  she 
had  to  go  out  into  the  woods  to  get  food"  for  her  young  ones.  So 
she  called  them  all  to  her,  and  said :  "  I  must  go  away  now,  and 
shall  not  come  back  till  evening.  You  must  all  stay  in  the  house 
and  not  let  anyone  in  till  I  come  home.  If  the  wolf  comes,  you 
will  know  him  by*  his8  rough  voice  and  his  black  feet.  Soon  the 


96  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  TWELVE  OF 

wolf  came  and  said :  "  Open  the  door  and  let  me  in.  I  am  youf 
mother  and  have  brought  you  some  cakes."  But  the  kids  knew  by 
the  rough  voice  that  it  was  not  their  mother,  and  the  oldest  kid 
looked  out  of  the  window  and  saw  the  wolf  standing  there  and  {old 
him  to  go  away. 

lGoat,  die  Ziege.    *  Kid,  Geislein.    'Food,   das  Putter.    *By, 
on.    "  Rough,  rauh. 

F. ADVANCED  GERMAN 

I.  Translate  into  English : 

(a)  Die  Kunst  ist  lang,  das  Leben  kurz,  das  Urteil  schwierig, 
die  Gelegenheit  fluchtig.    Handeln  ist  leicht,  Denken  schwer,  nach 
dem   Gedachten   handeln   unbequem.    Die   Nachahmung   ist   uns 
angeboren,  das  Nachzuahmende  wird  nicht  leicht  erkannt.     Selten 
wird  das  Treffliche  gefunden,  seltener  geschazt.     Die  Hohe  reizt 
uns,  nicht  die  Stufen ;   den  Gipfel  im  Auge  wandeln  wir  gerne  auf 
der  Ebene.     Nur  ein  Teil  der  Kunst  kann  gelehrt  werden,  der 
Kiinstler  braucht  sie  ganz.    Wer  sie  halb  kennt,  ist  immer  irre 
und  redet  viel ;  wer  sie  ganz  besitzt,  mag  nur  thun  und  redet  selten 
oder  spat.    Jene  haben  keine  Geheimnisse  und  keine  Kraft;    ihre 
Lehre  ist  wie  gebackenes  Brod,  schmackhaft  und  sattigend  fur 
einen  Tag:    aber  Mehl  kann  man  nicht  saen,  und  die  Saatfruchte 
sollen  nicht  vermahlen  werden.     Die  Worte  sind  gut,  sie  sind  aber 
nicht  das  Beste.    Das  Beste  wird  nicht  deutlich  durch  Worte.    Der 
Geist,  aus  dem  wir  handeln,  ist  das  Hochste.     Niemand  weisz,  was 
er  thut,  wenn  er  recht  handelt ;    aber  des  Unrechten  sind  wir  uns 
immer  bewuszt.     Des  echten  Kiinstlers  Lehre  schlieszt  den  Sinn 
auf;    denn  wo  die  Worte  fehlen,   spricht  die  That.     Der  echte 
Schtiler  lernt  aus  dem  Bekannten  das  Unbekannte  entwickeln  und 
nahert  sich  dem  Meister. — GOETHE. 

(b)  Alle  Morgen  wird  auf  unseren  Friihstiickstisch  mit  der  Zeit- 
ung  ein  Bundel  der  verschiedenartigsten  Neuigkeiten  gelegt :  Welt- 
lauf  und  Privatschicksale,  Handel  und  Verkehr,  Feuilleton  und 
Theaterskandal,  Borse  und  pikanter  Roman.     Unter  dieser  Fulle 
von  Dingen,  wie  Vieles  davon  ist  brauchbar  fur  unser  Leben  und 
unsere  Bildung?    Wie  Vieles  nahrt  das  heilige  Feuer  der  Hu- 
manitat?     Und    wie    Vieles    schmeichelt    unseren    schlimmereB 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  ASSOCIATION  OF  AMERICA       97 

Neigungen  und  Trieben?  Man  sage  nicht,  dasz  hier  nur  das 
Angebot  der  Nachfrage  entspreche;  die  Nachfrage  hatte  zuriick- 
gedrangt  werden  konnen,  ware  das  Angebot  nicht  so  eifrig  gewe- 
sen.  Und  wenn  es  dabei  bliebe !  Aber  dabei  hat  es  sein  Bewenden 
nicht,  der  Leser  erhalt  durch  die  Zeitung  nicht  blosz  den  Stoff, 
sondern  den  Stoff  in  einer  bestimmten  Form  und  Fassung,  begleitet 
von  einem  entschiedenen,  wenngleich  anonymen  Urteil.  .  .  . 
Und  mag  sich  ein  eifriger  Zeitungsleser  noch  so  sehr  und  so  lange 
strauben,  die  Meinung  des  Blattes,  das  er  halt,  als  die  seinige 
aufzunehmen,  es  kommen  erst  Augenblicke,  dann  Tage  und 
Wochen,  in  denen  es  ihm  bequem  ist,  wenn  das  Journal  fur  ihn 
denkt,  und  ist  er  so  weit,  dann  wird  ihm  das  Denken  iiberhaupt  zu 
muhsam  und  er  tiberlaszt  es  ein  fur  allemal  seinem  gedruckten 
Orakel. — SCHONBACH. 

II.  (a)  Without  translating,  paraphrase  the  following 
passage  in  ordinary  German  prose : 

Es  ist  der  Krieg  ein  roh,  gewaltsam  Handwerk. 

Man  kommt  nicht  aus  mit  sanften  Mitteln,  alles 

Laszt  sich  nicht  schonen.     Wollte  man's  erpassen, 

Bis  sie  zu  Wien  aus  vier  und  zwanzig  Ubeln 

Das  kleinste  ausgewahlt,  man  paszte  lange ! 

— Frisch  mitten  durchgegriffen,  das  ist  besser ! 

Reisz  dann,  was  mag! — Die  Menschen,  in  der  Regel, 

Verstehen  sich  aufs  Flicken  und  aufs  Stuckeln, 

Und  finden  sich  in  ein  verhasztes  Miissen 

Weit  besser  als  in  eine  bittre  Wahl. — SCHILLER. 

(&)  Explain  in  German  (i)  the  use  of  the  uninflected 
forms,  roh,  gewaltsam;  (2)  the  difference  between  passen 
and  erpassen;  (3)  the  use  of  durchgegriffen, 

(c)  Give  the  first  five  lines  as  they  would  appear  in  a 
report  introduced  by  er  sagte. 

(d)  Explain  in  German  the  meaning  of  the  last  two 
lines. 


98  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  TWELVE  OF 

III.  Write  fifteen  or  twenty  lines  in  German  upon  the 
plot  of  some  play  or  novel  that  you  have  read. 

IV.  Translate  into  German: 

One  of  the  most  beautiful  traits  in  the  character  of  Frederick  the 
Great  was  his  strict  love  of  justice.  Who  does  not  know  the  story 
of  the  windmill  at  Potsdam,  which  the  King  wished  to  buy  of  tha 
owner  because  it  stood  in  his  way  in  the  laying  out1  of  the  park  of 
Sans-Souci?  The  miller  refused  steadfastly  to  sell  his  property, 
though  the  King  offered  him  a  large  sum  and  promised  to  have 
another  mill  built  for  him.  But  the  obstinate  old  fellow  only  an- 
swered, "  My  grandfather  built  this  mill,  I  inherited  it  from  my 
father,  and  my  children  shall  inherit  it  from  me."  The  King  now 
became  impatient  and  said,  "  But  you  know,  I  suppose,  that  I 
might  have  your  mill  for  nothing  if  I  wished  ?  "  "  Yes,"  an- 
swered the  miller,  "  if  there  were  no  chamber  of  justice2  at  Ber- 
lin." Pleased  at  the  confidence  which  the  old  miller  had  in  the 
Prussian  courts,  the  King  dismissed  the  man  without  further 
words. 

1  Laying  out,  die  Anlage.  *  Chamber  of  Justice,  das  Kammer- 
gericht, 

CALVIN   THOMAS,   Chairman, 
Professor  of  Germanic  Languages,  Columbia  University, 

E.  H.  BABBITT,  Secretary, 
Instructor  in  Germanic  Languages,  Columbia  University, 

B.  L.  BOWEN, 
Professor  of  Romance  Languages,  Ohio  State  University, 

H.  C.  G.  BRANDT, 
Professor  of  German,  Hamilton  College, 

W.  H.  CARRUTH, 
Professor  of  German,  University  of  Kansas, 

S.  W.  CUTTING, 
Associate  Professor  of  German,  University  of  Chicago, 


THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  ASSOCIATION  OF  AMERICA       99 

A.  M.  ELLIOTT, 

Professor  of  Romance  Languages,  Johns  Hopkins  Uni- 
versity, 

C.  H.  GRANDGENT, 
Professor  of  Romance  Languages,  Harvard  University, 

G.  A.  HENCH, 

Late  Professor  of  Germanic  Languages,  University  of 
Michigan, 

HUGO  A.  RENNERT, 

Professor  of  Romance  Languages,  University  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, 

WM.  B.  SNOW, 
Teacher  of  French,  English  High  School,  Boston,  Mass., 

B.  W.  WELLS, 

Professor  of  Modern  Languages,  University  of  the  South, 

Committee. 


APPENDIX 

ACTION  OF  THE  MODERN  LANGUAGE  ASSO- 
CIATION, DECEMBER,  1910 

At  the  annual  meeting  in  New  York  City,  December  28,  29,  30, 
1910,  a  committee,  to  which  had  been  assigned  the  consideration 
of  a  revision  (thought  desirable  because  of  the  increase  of  new  and 
available  texts)  of  the  lists  of  texts  suggested  in  the  Report  of  the 
Committee  of  Twelve^  made  its  report.  The  Association  decided 
not  to  make  any  revision  of  the  original  lists  of  texts,  but  adopted 
a  motion  to  recommend,  for  the  guidance  of  teachers,  a  list  of  a 
very  few  texts  as  "typical,  end  representing  approximately  tkt 
gvmdt  of  work  to  be  dome  i*  eackyear" 

The  texts  suggested  were  as  follows :  — 

GERMAN 

ist  year :  After  some  Reader  for  beginners,  —  Meissner's  Ans 
meiner  Welt;  Bliithgen's  Das  Peterte  von  I^nmoer^;  Storm's 
Immensity  or  any  of  Baumbach's  short  stories. 

ad  year:  Gerstacker's  Germelskansen;  EichendorfiPs  Aus  dem 
Letfn  tints  Tangenickis  ;  Wildenbruch's  Das  edte  Bint;  Jensen's 
Dieoranne  Erica;  SeideTs  Leoenckt  Hnkncken ;  Fulda's  Unter 
vier  Angen  ;  Benedix's  Lustspick  (any  one).  —  For  students  pre- 
paring for  a  scientific  school  a  scientific  reader  is  recommended. 

3d  year:  Heyse's,  Riehl's.  Keller's,  Storm's,  Meyer's,  Ebner- 
Eschenbach's,  W.  Raabe's  Novellen  or  ErtaUnngen  may  be  read. 
—  Selected  poems  by  Goethe,  Schiller,  U  bland,  Heine. — Goethe's 
Hermann  nnd  Dorothea;  Lessing's  Minna  von  Bamkelm^ 
Schiller's  Wilkelm  Tell;  Freytag^s  Die  JonmaKsten;  Heine's 


APPENDIX  101 

4th  year :  Goethe's,  Schiller's,  Lessing's  works  and  lives. 
[NOTE  :  During  every  year  at  least  six  German  poems  should 
be  committed  to  memory.] 

FRENCH 

ist  year:  A  well-graded  reader  for  beginners ;  Compayrfs  Yvan 
Gall;  Laboulaye's  Contes  Bleus;  Malot's  Sans  FamilU. 

ad  year :  Daudet's  Le  Petit  Chose  ;  Erckmann-Chatrian's  stories; 
HaleVy's  LAbbe"  Constantin  ;  Labiche  et  Martin's  Le  Voyaged* 
M.  Perrichon  ;  Lavisse's  Histoire  de  France. 

3d  year:  Bazin's  Les  Obcrle" ;  Dumas's  novels;  MeYimeVs  Co- 
lomba ;  Sandeau's  Mile  de  la  Seigliere;  Tocqueville's  Voyagt  tm 
Amtrique. 

4th  year:  Dumas  fils'  La  question  f  argent ;  Hugo's  Quatre- 
vingt-treize  or  Les  Mise'rables  ;  Loti's  Pecheur  d'lslande  ;  Taine's 
L'AncUn  Regime;  Vigny's  Cinq-Mars  ;  an  anthology  of  verse. 


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Eraser  and  Van  der  S  miss  en's  German  Grammar.     $1.20. 

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French  Anecdotes  (Giese  and  Cool) .     45  cts. 

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Grandgent's  French  Composition.    60  cts. 

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UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY,  LOS  ANGELES 
EDUCATION  AND  PSYCHOLOGY  LIBRARY 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


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